Dr. Cornel West is one person who has a way with words. I absolutely love to hear him, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson,. Melissa Harris-Perry and a few others from academia and other worlds speak on a wide variety of issues.
Dr. West has a quote about leadership in which he originally stated 'the people'. I tweaked it and added 'trans' in front of 'the people' in order to make it germane to the trans community.
'You can’t lead trans people if you don’t love trans people. You can’t save trans people if you don’t serve trans people.'
That's one powerful statement. If you're claiming to be a leader of trans people, how can you successfully do the job of leading our diverse community to the best of your ability if you don't love trans people?
I also want to make it crystal clear that loving trans people means ALL trans people irregardless of where we fit in the trans rainbow.
We have seen the results over time of what happens when we have leaders or organizations who emerge inside and outside the trans community that don't love trans people. Their actions and their policies reflect that disdain for us even if their words claim they do.
We also have a plethora of problems and issues in the trans community that require some outside assistance to solve that range from chronic unemployment/underemployment, anti-trans violence aimed at us, to internal shame and guilt issues.
Now if you're going to claim you're coming to help us solve these problematic issues, you can't do so without serving us. Serving us in this context means actively listening to our concerns and grievances, taking affirmative action to solve those problems when they crop up by using suggestions that we come up with as a community, treating us with dignity and respect in interactions with us and our community, and respecting our humanity.
I just have to repeat Dr. West's quote for you TransGriot readers again in short form because it bears repeating.
You gotta love transpeople in order to lead us, and you can't save transpeople without serving us.
Dr. Cornel West is one person who has a way with words. I absolutely love to hear him, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson,. Melissa Harris-Perry and a few others from academia and other worlds speak on a wide variety of issues.
