The Combahee River Collective Statement (1977) on why Black men struggle to support Black feminism
The reaction of Black men to feminism has been notoriously negative. They are, of course, even more threatened than Black women by the possibility that Black feminists might organize around our own needs. They realize that they might not only lose valuable and hardworking allies in their struggles but that they might also be forced to change their habitually sexist ways of interacting with and oppressing Black women. Accusations that Black feminism divides the Black struggle are powerful deterrents to the growth of an autonomous Black women’s movement.
Tumblr user spyrothesquish-0006 (2005)
Yeah if Black men benefit from misogynoir there's no reason to believe that trans men don't benefit from transmisogyny.
The fact both Black cis men and white trans men sit there and cry about how feminism "divides" the struggle in the same way white cishet men say feminists hating on men "isn't helping their cause" is not coincidence.
It's always the same kind of nonsense excuse for it too. "I face hardship too! And you're ignoring that!"
And it's like...no? I'm literally just centering women instead of you because the stakes are much higher, at least, in reality where the rest of us are. Trans women face more violence and that's doubly true for Black trans women. That is a fact. We are not "all equally out of the frying pan and into the fire"
Trans women of color, who are among the most likely targets of violence, see statistics that reflect their reality co-opted to bolster the idea that all women are facing the same level of danger. Yet support from mainstream white feminists for the issues that directly impact trans women has been at best minimal, and often nonexistent.
- Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism
And now trans men are co-opting this statistics too? So that they too can pretend we all face the same level of danger?
Decentering Black women has never helped Black women either and as an anti-racist I see no reason to keep doing that.
Thinking otherwise just to save yourself?
And guess how often trans men center trans women of color 💀💀
What's worse? The entitlement. That extra layer of privilege. Expecting trans women and especially Black trans women to decenter their actual lived realities in exchange for validating the feelings of trans men.
And to that I say if you're so worried about whatever issue(s)you're facing (racism, transphobia, classism, etc) then you should center women in that struggle too, we all know they're facing more danger than men are.
To quote The Combahee River Collective Statement again:
In “A Black Feminist’s Search for Sisterhood,” Michele Wallace arrives at this conclusion:
We exists as women who are Black who are feminists, each stranded for the moment, working independently because there is not yet an environment in this society remotely congenial to our struggle—because, being on the bottom, we would have to do what no one else has done: we would have to fight the world. [2]
Wallace is pessimistic but realistic in her assessment of Black feminists’ position, particularly in her allusion to the nearly classic isolation most of us face. We might use our position at the bottom, however, to make a clear leap into revolutionary action.
If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.
And therein lies proof of yet another way trans men utilize their privilege: asking for the attention, time, and labor of women who's freedom will not be won by fighting for the rights of anyone but women.
What's worse? When you disagree with those transmascs they paint you as a petty, hateful feminazi/radfem who just hates men and loves causing community discourse!!
The oppression of transfemmes isn't build on the oppression of transmascs so liberating transmascs won't lead to the liberation of transfemmes. But the oppression of transmascs is built on the same systems that oppress trans femmes.
We should all have solidarity with one another through the structures of oppression we face whether it be race, transphobia, class, ableism, colonization, etc.
And that solidarity should also stretch into allyship and understanding where it intersects with the structures we don't face. We should be uplifting those of us who face the highest levels of persecution and violence.
Likewise this kind of praxis should lead us all right back to the conclusion that the Combahee River Collective came to. The common denominator is Black women. Thats who we need to be uplifting and fighting for.
Black intersex women, Black trans women, Black indigenous women, Black immigrant women, Black disabled women, etc.
Black women are capable of facing every single intersection of oppression and it's Black women who face the highest rates of violence across nearly all of those intersections and I'm saying this as an Ojibwe two spirit who knows better than to act like a afro-indigenous women don't exist.
If Black women were free to be Black, to be women, to be disabled, trans, fat, old, intersex, to be indigenous, etc then we all would be free to be those things.
If all Black women were safe, all the rest of us would be, too.
Can the same be said of liberating transmascs? I didn't think so.
The fact transmascs demand to be centered just because they are trans is proof of their privilege, transmisogyny, and ignorance as men who fear what transfeminism means to their privilege of constantly being centered. You know, rather than seeing transfeminism as a liberation movement that would eventually lead us all to safety.
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