Welcome home, Spirit.

Dear White LGBT*Q+/gsm People,

marchoftigers:

Do I have your attention? Good, ‘cause I needed it.

So I’m pretty sure that you all have learned about the Civil Rights Movement, am I right? Dr. MLK, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, and every badass of the like. I’m guessing you were told that Black folks/PoC gained equality after 1964, and that all “Black folks became humanized in the eyes of the mighty-whitey. Or at least the ones that matter anyway.”  (That quote is legit, by the way. Here’s the link:http://marchoftigers.tumblr.com/post/27269293926/victim-playing)

The idea that the Civil Rights Movement ended in 1964: A damn lie!

The notion that Black people automatically became equal after 1964:False!

Now here’s the truth: The Civil Rights movement ain’t over. It’s faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar from over. We’ve made tons of strides since 1964, but we still need ta’ make tons more!

And here’s another truth: Due to Systemic/Institutionalized Racism, the Intersections of oppression, the White-Washing of every equality movement to the point that PoC have to break off and/or form their own factions for movements, Eurocentric standards of beauty, racist stereotypes, and of course the refusal to let us have our own damn safe-spaces, Black folks/PoC are faaaaaaaaaaaaaar  from being seen as equal. If anything, we’re required to cater to everyone else, constantly be a Google search engine, be a petting zoo, be sexually available, and support other businesses while we are shot down every 40 hours, fill up private prisons to be a source of revenue, BE a source of revenue everyone else but ourselves, be ugly, be invisible, be perfect, be quiet, be a doormat, be spat upon, and STILL conform and assimilate into White Supremacy.

NO!!! Just….NO!

So now that I’ve gotten these two facts out of the way, I (a Black, Genderqueer kid) wanna address something really quick. Paticulary something that has something that has (evidently) been a problem in our community.

The Co-Opting of the Civil Rights Movement (my movement) for the sake of the LGBT*Q+/gsm movement. (Also my movement)

Whenever you say stuff like: “Don’t give me that Excuse! The people of the Civil Rights movement stood strong in the face of death, and now Black people are humanized in the eyes of mighty-whiteys(or at least the ones that matter anyway) so “go eat a bag of dicks you lazy whore.”” you fail to realize the several things:

1. Getting the right to vote and to actually have a fighting chance in the workplace doesn’t automatically mean you’re seen as human.
2. PoC are often the motors that keep this LGBT*Q+/gsm movement going. Yet y’all end up being the face of these things and getting all the credit for it. Gee, I wonder why…

(For an example, please see the TRUE history of how Stonewall kicked off and WHO it was kicked off by.)

  3. Standing up for ourselves often results in imprisonment or death.

(For an example, look at CeCe McDonald, the courageous Trans* woman who stood up to transphobic attacks.)

  4. Microagressions: Not only do face microagressions for being LGBT*Q+/gsm, we also get them for being a PoC. *Gasp!* Shocking, I know!

  5. Being a LGBT*Q+/gsm PoC is a lot different (and due to intersectionality a lot more difficult) than being a White LGBT*Q+/gsm person.

There. Now that I’ve listed these, it’s very important that I say this.

LGBT*Q+/gsm PoC do their best to call out racism, sexism, homophobia, heterosexism, biphobia, monosexism, transphobia, cissexism, and binairism whenever it comes up. We really, really do! But when we’re at a higher risk of death, violence, erasure and violence, and harrasment than you are, I beleive we have the right to set some boundaries. ‘Cause here’s the thing: Calling out and catching all of these microagressions runs us into the damn ground. It’s tiring as fuck! If you’ve got the stamina for this shit, then that’s great. That’s fan-tucking-fastic! That’s muffin-button-fuckin’-kosher!

But please don’t tell us that we’re “oppressing ourselves” when we don’t have the strength to call out our co-workers out on that one microagression that they made. That’s victim blaming, pure and simple.

Also, don’t twist the words and actions of Brother Martin to shut us up or to exercise ownership over our lives for the sake of (our) a White-washed movement that doesn’t even take intersectionality into account. (Because if it did, this post wouldn’t be here.) 

Now for boundaries: While they won’t stop our oppressors from oppressing us, we DO have the right to set boundaries.

• We have the right to pick and choose our battles.
• We have the right to pick when we’re educating.
• We have the right to take our personal lives into account when we talk about the systemic/institutionalized oppression that plague us.
• We have the right NOT to be Google Search Engines, textbooks, dictionaries, or magical robots that just spit out answers.
• We have the right to be fucking angry about our oppressions.
• We have the right to react to them [our oppressions] however the damn well we please.
• We have the right NOT to accept tone policing.
• We have the right to NOT be polite or nice. Contrary to popular belief, being nice doesn’t work, and this revolution? *Heh!* This revolution will not be polite!
• We have the right to react however we damn please to death threats, rape threats, racial slurs, homophobic slurs, trans*phobic slurs and any other form of intolerable bullshit. (when they are received)
• We have the right to solidarity among other marginalized groups without being accused of having a “hive-mind”.
• But most of all, we have the right TO LIVE OUR FUCKING LIVES WITHOUT THREATS, WITHOUT CATERING TO OUR OPPRESSORS, AND WITHOUT HAVING TO DO PRIVILEGED PEOPLE’S HOMEWORK!

These, Ladies, Gents, and Variations of the likes, are The Intersecting Oppressions of Marginalized Groups Miranda rights. Please, pass them around.

Thank you for your time,

-SuperHyuga Yoshi-chan. (March Of Tigers)