I think the struggle black trans people (esp black trans women) go through is so unique and different from other trans people. but at the same time, i do feel a lot like nonblack trans (mainly white people) people just tokenize us at the end of the day and just, lump us in with their struggles. i mean to extents we all face transphobia, all trans people do, but i don’t think people realize just how different transphobia and tranmisogyny are when you are black. especially if you are visibly black or dark skinned.
that’s to say. i think a lot of white people who are trans tokenize us (and they even tokenize nonblack trans poc as well), but also don’t listen to us when we speak about our unique experiences with gender as black people, or call them out for being racist. some of them…in arguments, when it comes to racism also go very very close to misgendering us or reducing us to our agab (assigned gender at birth) to reroute the convo.
i also wanna elaborate on the last part later on today
heavy racist and transphobic discussions up
but white trans/nonbinary people will always come close to misgendering us and reducing us to our assigned gender at birth when we call out their racism so they can a.) victimize themselves and b.) play on stereotypes regarding our assigned gender at birth. at least, this has happened to me before.
but idk if y’all have realized. but when it comes to white trans people arguing with like black trans people, or nonbinary trans afab people, it’s very easy for them to turn the discussion on us and make us seem like the “angry black woman” even if some of us aren’t women, but that is the vibe that they are giving. the language in which they use and the way they are able to completely turn themselves into the victim and reduce a afab trans person to our agab to play on stereotypes of angry black women harming white people.
similarly, they do the same for black trans women or black tma people. where in, they will play on stereotypes of their agab and turn the whole conversation against a black trans woman if she is calling out racism, and make her into the aggressive, dangerous person who is victimizing an innocent white woman or man. and they will play on very harmful, transmisogynstic ideas and shit, just to get out of being held accountable for racism.
i’ve seen this happen before, and this is why i think that it’s really important for us to sometimes recognize that we don’t just face racism from white trans people but also transphobia/transmisogyny. because while they tokenize us, depending on the day, time and argument, it’s very likely that they won’t recognize us as trans or nonbinary or won’t recognize our gender and our struggles of transphobia if they don’t think it suits their argument.
nonblack trans poc do this to us as well, but i really really see this with white trans people (nonblack trans poc are also victims of this to white people as well–but that’s for another post).
anyway, if you aren’t a black trans person, and esp if you are white, you should reblog this lol
