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saw a list of last words of black people murdered by the pisspoor establishment known as the police, but this one got me. i got a four-year-old daughter. i got a four-year-old daughter. the disbelief that he'd been shot. its just all too much

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i think a lot of comfortable liberals, esp in the imperial core, balk at the critical analyses of politically conscious people because they are genuinely fearful to grasp the degree of mundane cruelty necessary to fuel the current ruling order. it offends their sensibilities. it is disturbing and it disturbs. it would require grappling with the reality that they benefit from it, and it would require active effort to try to comprehend the genuinely incomprehensible level of bloodshed which maintains the status quo. when, for examples, liberals ask such questions as "well, during 'the revolution,' what about how [x tokenized demographic who is vulnerable] will be harmed?", they do so because they refuse to accept the reality of the mundane and normalized level of violence essential to the state of affairs.

the reality that must be contended with (and, certainly, the unignorable, compulsory reality for the vast majority of the peoples of the world) is that the state of affairs is saturated with more blood than anybody in their single lives could possibly wrap their head around. comfortable liberals seem to want to believe the world is, on some level, good, or at least neutral. undoubtedly there are good things in this world, but that is true in such a trivial sense, like saying "the sun will rise the next day," that it amounts to nothing more than trite aphorism in the face of unimaginable cruelty.

the gears of this system are oiled with more blood than we will ever know. genocide and devastation and war and extraction and exploitation and slavery and humiliation are the norms of this system. this system innovates the most imaginative cruelties in service of shaving fractions of pennies off of costs to elevate profits and consolidate capital. to have any kind of real, or, genuinely, even optimistic understanding of the world requires contending with this reality of status quo.

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ELAINE BROWN // ACTIVIST

“She is an American prison activist, writer, singer, and former Black Panther Party chairwoman who is based in Oakland, California. Brown briefly ran for the Green Party presidential nomination in 2008. When Huey P. Newton fled to Cuba in 1974 to avoid criminal charges, he appointed Brown to lead the Black Panther Party. Brown was the only woman to do so. She chaired the Black Panther Party from 1974 until 1977. She dealt with regular sexism because the men were angered by the thought of taking orders from a woman. During Brown's leadership of the Black Panther Party, she focused on electoral politics and community service. In 1977, she managed Lionel Wilson’s victorious campaign to become Oakland’s first black mayor. Also, Brown founded the Panther's Liberation School, which was recognized by the state of California as a model school.”

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not even gonna lie. i lied. bc i started this. and i don't mind it so far. but then i picked up cistem failure by marquis bey. and it is. really fucking good. so i will probably be reading that through and providing an overview on that sooner rather than later.

currently reading! hoping to glean some insight into how queerness has been inherent to western african culture for centuries, and how colonization influenced those practices. american right-wing influences have especially influenced the country lately, especially with the passing of the "human sexual rights and family values" bill that happened earlier this year (february of 2024).

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I'm a trans guy and tbh I feel like I don't fully understand the transandrophobia debate. Based on my understanding of intersectionality & transfeminism, I think that trans men (largely) experience transphobia and misogyny, while trans women (largely) experience transphobia, misogyny, *and* transmisogyny -- I also think it's necessary to discuss issues that specifically affect men without describing them as forms of oppression or discrimination against men. But that's just accounting for intersecting identities (including both marginalized and privileged identities) rather than only accounting for intersecting oppressions, right? I feel like some people using the term "transandrophobia" either seem to be confusing these two concepts or mistaking gender essentialism for discrimination against men (though some just use it to describe a subset of transphobia rather than an intersection, it seems like). In any case, even though misandry isn't a real systemic issue, I can understand why some people feel like there's missing language or frameworks when it comes to discussing the ways men, and trans men specifically, are treated (and the ways they/we treat each other). I'm not sure what better alternatives are available, but I'm sure some are possible. I'm wondering if I'm misunderstanding something or if you have any other thoughts on this. Thanks!

It sounds like you understand this 1000% better than every sincere transandrophobia poster. Not every unique experience is a locus of oppression that needs a systemic oppression label -- but yeah, of course, it merits being talked about.

For example, lots of trans men have a hard time in coping with the shift from being treated with emotional deference and warmth by strangers, to suddenly being treated quite coldly or even in a mistrustful way by strangers. That is a real, painful experience -- and it's one that is wrapped up in damaging gender norms that do also negatively affect cis men. It's not androphobia, but it is a consequence of sexism and the gender binary that sucks, and it merits speaking about.

Where things get dicey and fucked up is when men (either cis or trans) take a painful experience like that and declare that it means they're actually more oppressed than women.

(And, as Lee ButchAnarchist often points out, women's emotions are even more policed than men -- yes men are denied tenderness and warmth from total strangers, but they are showered in affection and caretaking by the women close to them, and they are allowed rage a whole lot more than women, in general. so it's overly simplistic and sexist to say men are more societally emotionally repressed. this dynamic plays out among trans men too -- we are given a lot more latitude to be emotionally explosive. trans women, meanwhile, are told they're being "scary" if they have any negative emotion. This is all also racialized -- Black people of any gender are basically never afforded the chance to voice negative feelings in public no matter how much they police their tone.)

I think a lot of trans masc people have a sudden rude awakening that being treated as a man can be painful and complicated, and that the gender binary harms everyone, and that there is a social price to pay for the privileges of being deferred to, respected, and so on. They also don't want to acknowledge when they are being respected and deferred to -- owning up to having any male privilege feels dirty and wrong to people, which is silly because it's just a reality, it has no moral bearing on the person experiencing the privilege. And of course it's often an incomplete privilege because of sexism and transphobia. But it still happens. Particularly within trans spaces.

I don't think this conversation will move forward productively until more trans men are capable of acknowledging that many of us have privilege and that we are very capable of hurting other people, being sexist, and speaking over trans women. And that's why we gotta make this transandrophobia stuff just completely socially unacceptable in our spaces. It is exactly the same as being a Men's Rights Activist. There are real men's liberation issues! Any worthwhile feminism will also liberate men! There are lots of aspects of the gender binary and patriarchy that are harmful to men, and that's worth talking about. Same with transphobia. But we can't have that conversation when men commandeer it to talk about how actually women have it better and all that vile shit. That talk is used to silence women, trans and cis alike.

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ignore me, making a reading list! or don't ignore me and go get your hands on what i'm reading; we could talk about it. (please talk to me about it.)

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currently reading! hoping to glean some insight into how queerness has been inherent to western african culture for centuries, and how colonization influenced those practices. american right-wing influences have especially influenced the country lately, especially with the passing of the "human sexual rights and family values" bill that happened earlier this year (february of 2024).

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I Am Not Your Negro, dir. Raoul Peck (2016) (via lunamonchtuna)

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james baldwin managed to have such a nuanced and understanding view of the black militants of his time.

he recognized the views and stand points of malcolm x and his associates as something very real, very tangible. malcolm x was giving a voice to the pain and struggle of many black people in america at the time, offering solutions through militarism and giving black people something they hadn't had: a chance to feel real. a chance to feel visible. and not just the polished, presentable parts of their lives, no. malcolm x gave voice to the systemic oppression and pain they faced, pain that the country they lived in tried so hard to deny.

however, he still recognized (and disconnected himself) from the idea of inherent superiority that malcolm spoke to his followers. he understood what felt like the need for this morale, for this cushioning to a very harshly persecuted and heavily policed people, but he simply couldn't get behind it. in his own words, that line of thinking "will always break down in a crisis."

its the type of understanding i find myself having towards the black individualists of today. even today, with all we know now, or systematic oppression is denied, ridiculed, etc etc. interacting with this world as a black person can leave a very bitter taste in your mouth. those who begin to see the world as unkind and hostile, who begin to find their only community within those who understand that struggle, are understandable to me. i am sympathetic, but i cannot live that way. it is a line of thinking that crumbles under certain pressures. even if the world is cruel, even if it has proven it will not be gentle with you, it should not mean your own gentleness should not extend past people who are unlike you!

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james baldwin, how to cool it, esquire, july 1968 edition

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pinned post; lets go.

essentially a blog where my personal experiences as a (first gen american) black queer person will be talked about through a lens of analyzation, as well as analyzing theory from those who came before me. thats the main purpose, anyway. will also probably get silly sometimes on here. what can i say; its in my nature.

antiblackness and my frustration with it will be a heavy topic here, and mentions of violence, both historical and present, will be mentioned quite a bit here. i will tag it as needed.

transmisogynoir will also be a topic here, and i'll be pulling from black trans women who are essayists, my own birds eye view of it as a black person, and lived experiences of black transfems who i know and love. mentions of violence from this will be properly tagged as well.

the tagging system will probably grow larger as we go along, but let me set out the baseline now:

#sign of my times - my own personal ramblings and vents through an analytical lens. theory will be drawn upon here, but it'll be applied to my own experiences.

#mental digest - analyses of the essays, books, and other such i've read.

#tales from the table - writing about the experiences of others, sometimes collaborating directly with them, sometimes not.

#point n' click - me analyzing antiblackness in media or spaces that were not dedicated to it or written by other black people, but still intrigue me. will be almost entirely my own thoughts on the piece.

#no place like - specifically studying theory, black, queer, or otherwise, from Ghana. it's where my family is from, and the situation over there at the moment for my queer family is dire. sometimes will be my own thoughts on it as well.