That Blog About That Queer Kid

Aug. 30, 2011 at 2:34pm with 17 notes View comments

“The T word is to trans* people like the N word is to black people.”

This is the most classic form of analogizing oppression that I could think of in regards to trans* folks. Oppression is pervasive, which is why it’s so effective. There are no walls dictating an entire oppressed class versus an entire privileged class; the majority of the time we’re a little of both in various, convoluted ways.

Oftentimes, we attempt to use our privileges in one way to advocate on behalf of those who are marginalized in the ways we are also marginalized. This is not necessarily wrong per se, but this needs to be done very carefully. Most of the time people do this, it is because they aren’t actually aware of their privilege. When exacted without examination, we arrive at sentences like the above. Many of us think about how we are marginalized and neglect to consider the ways in which we are privileged and how that negligence damages our movements.

The problem with analogizing oppression is that we are setting up boxes that marginalized bodies cannot fit into. The above statement erases the existence of black, queer bodies and identities by homogenizing queer circles. Furthermore, it assumes that racism and cissexism operate separately and equally when they often occur concurrently and have different ways of functioning. We rule out the possibility of folks having multiple identities and further the otherizing of non-normative bodies who are lower on the privilege ladder than our own selves.

As a person of color, I hear statements like these and recognize that I’m not as welcome as they may claim. No amount of verbal rationalization can undo or absolve someone of turning the queer community into a white unless otherwise stated space.