Of New Jack Racism – Jim And Jane Crow Makes A Comeback !

TransGriot Note: Guest post by Dawn Wilson, 2000 IFGE Trinity Award winner and the first African-American trans person to win the award.

Once again the forces of ignorance in the TG community show themselves. When my friend Monica wrote about the lack of African American transgender persons at the recent event in the White House she was kinder than I would have been.

It is well noted in many surveys that the minority transgendered population suffers the most in today’s society.

Case in point, the 2000 Washington DC Transgender Needs Assessment Survey (WTNAS) which pointed out the gross disparities faced by many young minority men and women

It was compiled from 263 questionnaires collected from September 11, 1999 to January 31, 2000. Duplication was prevented by the use of an acrostic as a unique identifier for each participant. Subtraction of duplicated and incomplete/inconsistent questionnaires produced a final total of 252.

Participants range in age from 13 to 61, with nearly 80% 36 years and under. Seventy-five percent or respondents report being born anatomically male, 24% female and 1% intersexed. Over 94% are of color, with nearly 70% African-American and 22% Latino/a. Eighty-four percent are U.S. citizens, and 20% have immigrated to the U.S., mostly from Latin American countries. The majority of the participants self-report their sexual orientation as Gay (65%), their gender identity as Transgender (69%) and their relationship status as single (69%).

The WTNAS survey found and I quote:

Forty percent have not finished high school, and only 58% are employed in paid positions. Twenty-nine percent report no source of income, and another 31% report annual incomes under $10,000. Fifteen percent report losing a job due to discrimination from being transgendered. Forty-three percent of the participants have been a victim of violence or crime, with 75% attributing a motive of either transphobia or homophobia to it.

Almost half of the participants (47%) do not have health insurance, and 39% do not have a doctor whom they see for routine health care.

Ratings of accessed regular health care services with regard to their quality and sensitivity to the participants as transgendered individuals range from Good to Excellent, but the numbers reporting indicate a low level of overall access.

The most common barriers to accessing regular medical care reported are lack of insurance (64%), inability to pay (46%), provider insensitivity or hostility to transgendered people (32%), and fear of transgender status being revealed (32%).

With disparities like these, the question is clear. Where were the trans minorities of color?

As author Alice Walker pointed out, “No person is your friend who demands your silence or denies your right to grow.”

It was pure arrogance on the behalf of imitation French vanilla transgendered activists to think they have the power to dictate to the transgender community at large who is acceptable in their eyes to meet with the President of the United States.

If they were truly our allies, they needed to talk to the leaders in the African American transgendered diaspora that we chose to represent us.

Unfortunately, some people fell for that ‘okey-doke’ illusion of inclusion strategy and instead of giving a multicultural panel a chance to represent us, went out and formed another white-dominated panel and anointed its leader as THE spokesperson for the community. Because of this, the tranquilizing drug of complacency was injected into the transgender community and put us in the position once again of being sold out.

As reprehensible as those actions were, there was a silver lining in all of this. People are beginning to question this community’s commitment to diversity.

One of the lessons I was taught by my Sunday School teacher Sister Willie Mae Lewis was a mantra drilled into us that I remember to this day that resembles a math equation.

Accountability + Responsibility = Credibility

She also reminded her students that before one can lead, one must be willing to follow and hold themselves accountable for their actions.

It seems that some transgender community leaders and other people inside the Beltway have forgotten that lesson, much less been taught it.

It is time for them to learn the folly of their ways and school is in session.

Another Sister-Sister Ladies Final At 'Williams'-don

There are several predictions I can make with absolute certainty for Saturday's Ladies Singles final at Wimbledon.

*An African-American will win it.
*It'll be played on Independence day
*The champion's last name will be Williams.

My favorite tennis playing siblings made it to the finals of the Ladies Singles earlier today but took different routes to get there.

Little Sis had to play a knockdown drag out three set semifinal match for the ages in subduing 2008 Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva of Russia 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 8-6.

It was the longest semifinal women's match ever played in the open era at Wimbledon at two hours and 49 minutes, and Serena had to battle, claw, scrap, chase and hustle for every point. She also got some critical points that clipped the line by millimeters that were verified by the automated Hawk-Eye system.

Dementieva was considered the underdog despite having some recent success against Serena. She knocked Serena out of the Olympic singles tournament last year and had won two other recent non-Grand Slam tournament matchups with her prior to Wimbledon.

She also brought her A+ game to Wimbledon as well.

But this is a Grand Slam tournament, and the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club is the Williams sisters home away from home.

A few hours later two time defending Wimbledon champion Big Sis destroyed Dementieva's countrywoman and world Number 1 ranked player Dinara Safina to set up an all 'Williams'-don ladies final for their fourth time in their careers.

Safina was eliminated in a 6-1, 6-0 rout that only took Venus 51 minutes to complete.

It took 27 minutes before Safina even won her only game of the match and she was already trailing 5-0 in the first set.

And don't look now peeps, the Williams sisters are in the Ladies Doubles semifinals, so they may be taking another check home before their successful business trip to England is completed.

Should be a very interesting 4th of July. But as an elder sibling I'm rooting for Big Sis to take home another Venus (Williams) Rosewater dish on Saturday..

Justice For Teish Update

We are counting down to the July 13 start date for the trial of Dwight DeLee, the alleged killer of Lateisha Green.

Since the media ain't doing it, with the help of my trans brothers and trans sisters, allies, and fellow bloggers, I'll do my best on TransGriot to try to keep you informed and updated about the developments in the upcoming DeLee trial.

I had this post last month jump starting it, but my game plan is to do more frequent updates from now until the end of the trial.

Bear in mind that I'm a long way from Syracuse, NY, so if you live in the area, help a sistah out. Help us shine a glaring spotlight on the case and generate buzz so it gets covered properly. Shoot me an e-mail reporting what's going on from time to time. You might catch something I miss, especially since you live in the area.

July 2 News

Got an e-mail from Gina stating that the Justice For Teish site on Facebook has now garnered 1,000 members. However, the site for Angie had 5,000 members at the same time period, and there's been a huge disparity in the media coverage vis-a-vis the two trials.

I'm having conversations with peeps at GLAAD and will be attempting to get in contact with people at TruTv to get them to cover his trial.

Far too many of the victims of anti-trans violence happen to share my ethnic background and far too often their killers are other African-Americans who either get away with it or get a legal slap on the wrist.