Semi-hiatus

Trans people of color are underrepresented and outnumbered. When we stand up and make ourselves visible, we put ourselves at risk of disproportionate scrutiny and harassment, not just from transphobes and bad actors, but also from those within our own community. When we want to make ourselves heard, we're told that now is not the time. We're told it's stirring up drama, in-fighting, and bad optics. Even how, and when, we express our grievances is policed. When we use provocation, it's inflammatory and lacks nuance. When we use satire, it's offensive and unproductive. When we share our personal experiences, it's the oppression olympics. When we share statistics, it's sowing division. When we clarify ourselves, it's back-pedaling. When we defend ourselves, it's doubling down. When we criticize too harshly, we're asked to placate. When we don't criticize hard enough, we're ignored outright. When it's said by a large platform, it's engagement baiting and fed posting. When it's said by a small platform, it's buried and forgotten. When it's said by a SWer, it invites shame and disparagement. And when we're lucky enough to survive beyond all of the compounding systemic barriers placed upon us (before, during, and after transition), we're seen as the example and not the exception. It's suffocating, disillusioning, and isolating. Even within a community that claims to include and support us, we have no voice. Acknowledging the intersectionality of trans people of color, especially those who are black and indigenous, is not something new within progressive spaces. And it does not take anything away from the very real experiences of white trans individuals. But it also does not absolve them from, or grant them immunity to, the same racial prejudices and biases held (subconsciously or otherwise) if they were cis. Having a marginalized gender identity does not come with the awareness of marginalized racial identities. White hegemony and oppression do not disappear when recontextualized within a transgender space, just like they don't within queer spaces more broadly. It still exists including through unexamined racial privilege and how that shapes behaviors and attitudes, and how trans white voices dominate discourse and dictate the overarching priorities of the trans community while excluding, dismissing, sidelining, and being blind to, trans bipoc perspectives. And that was made very clear from the responses throughout this entire discourse, including the same familiar displays of white fragility and conservative talking points used when confronting racial inequality more generally. To me, and all the other trans bipoc, who read every defensive reaction, deflection, straw man, dismissal, bad faith interpretation, condescending interjection, anecdotal fallacy, pedantic argument, disparaging comment, accusation, and personal attack. Every "well actually", "not all white people", "all lives matter", and "we have bigger problems". Only for those same people to inevitably virtue-signal about how their peers need to do better when one of them is outed for racism (if at all). The irony and hypocrisy has not been lost on us.

[ID: flat color pencil and marker portrait sketch of Zelda from Twilight Princess, resigned to be Black. Her hair is in locs decorated with gold cuffs, and her expression is neutral with her eyes looking slightly off to the side. End ID]

You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan. No plan at all. You know why? Because life cannot be planned.

- m/f ship between a nonblack man & a Black woman

- it's either canon (e.g. mel/jayce arcane, arthur/guinevere bbcmerlin) or entirely plausible (e.g. prism or coupé/robert dispatch)

- fanbase overwhelmingly pairs nb man off with another nb man and disengages from the Black woman character, shunting her into a background wise & sassy caretaker role (for which there is a name) or leaving her out of fanworks entirely

- fans who do this ^ claim it is an expression of love and admiration for the Black woman character, actually, bc the nb man (who may be her canonical partner) "can't handle all that" (he may be perfectly competent and engaged; she may be totally low maintenance; it has no bearing), she's just too wonderful (too much) and out of his league (lacking in flaws and interiority and fan appeal)