Y'ALL: A note on transethnicity

fracturedrefuge:

I have been thinking about the ask that I received this morning and I just want to clarify something.

The concepts of being transethnic and transracial were first used by adoptees (sometimes they refer to themselves as “abductees”, which I fully support and want to apologize if I offend anyone by my use of the term “adoptee”).  Many times, these adoptees are PoC who were adopted by white parents and they grew up navigating a very complex world.  I do not want to speak for them, as they deserve to have their own voices heard, so I will just say this:  I completely support their use of the terms “transracial” and “transethnic”.  

And I think it is disgustingly, horribly racist and erasing that it has been co-opted by bored white kids who ~feel~ like their ~souls~ are a different race.  Way to go, white kids.  You just marginalized and erased a group that, hey, wouldn’t you know it, is already marginalized and erased.   Way to be.

Just throwing that out there.

I can get behind this, if I’m reading it right.  The idea that there are no legitimate examples of problematic racial/ethnic identifications is pretty preposterous.  In my own experience, as someone born of Turkish immigrants to the US, the extent to which I have identified as (and, more importantly, felt like it was appropriate for me to identify as) Turkish has been just as fraught as my struggles with gender identity.  If that fluidity and self-determination can be described as transethnic, so be it; I’m kind of glad there might be a term for it.  Likewise for children of mixed-race parents, or any number of other situations.  

That being said, I feel like this kind problematic relationship, fluid identification, or act of self-determination is categorically different from an ad hoc decision that one “feels” as part of a different ethnic community.  The salient distinction, I think, is the work that one must do when navigating cultural communities.  In my mind, it’s not enough that I grew up with Turkish parents or learned the Turkish language to really consider myself Turkish when so much of my upbringing, prevailing cultural milieus, and the ways I bear myself as a racially marked social being cause me to identify as “white American”, even if in a highly qualified way.  But — und this is a very big but — insofar as I can and do identify as Turkish (vs. being a person of Turkish descent) it is again because I have at times in my life performed acts of cultural labor — learning the language, communing with Turkish people, learning the history and folklore, etc.  For immigrants to new countries, the hope for integration — as much as it can exist — is completely premised on similar acts of cultural labor.  

And, while this is quite contradictory to many transgender people’s personal narratives (which I would never want to erase or deny), this sense of cultural labor is also a major way that I interpret my own transgender experience.  I cannot merely call myself a woman any more than a young girl can.  Cis and trans alike, we only become our gendered selves through intense labor (whether self-engaged or forced), and to believe that we can be those identities simply applying a name to ourselves — that I am a woman only because I say I am a woman — sells short the intense tooth-and-nail struggles I and all other transgender people engage in on a daily basis regardless of hormones or surgeries or other artifactual trappings.  I am a woman because I’m becoming a woman, just as much as any cis female is.  

So, yeah, there are comparisons to be made between transgender and “transethnic” identities.  If you want to be “transTurkish”, be my guest, but show me the fucking labor.  Live in Turkey for a decade, listen to Turkish people, become a person whom Turks accept into their fold, then I’ll gladly call you transethnic ‘til the cows come home.  And, as we’ve seen in Israel recently, and all over the world throughout history, a lot of times there is no amount of cultural labor that will make you accepted in a given racial community, so stop assuming that just reading a few books and hanging out with a few people (mostly while simply fetishizing them and not actually listening to them) makes you any damn thing.

Source: fracturedrefuge

mattachinereview:

negritaaa:

lilliep:

Dear White People (2012)

DEAR WHITE PEOPLE follows the stories of four black students at an Ivy League college where a riot breaks out over a popular “African American” themed party thrown by white students. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the film will explore racial identity in “post-racial” America while weaving a universal story of forging one’s unique path in the world. 

Trailer — Info — Donate

So here for this.

ATTN SARAH LAWRENCE PEOPLE

Does this remind you of the Thanksgiving party fiasco?  IT SHOULD.  Check it out; help them make this thing happen.

Source: lilliep

Moreover, white NIMBYism (“not in my backyard”) becomes PIBBYism (“place in blacks back yard”), and, along with poor enforcement of environmental regulations, leads to the construction of garbage dumps, landfills, incinerators, sewer treatment plants, recycling centers, prisons, drug treatment units and public housing projects in minority communities rather than in white ones.

Robert D. Bullard: Environmental Justice: Issues, Policies and Solutions, “Residential Segregation and Urban Quality of Life” (via fuckyeahenvironmentaljustice)

I taught this piece to a bunch of privileged white undergrads last year when I was TAing an Environmental Ethics course.  It was frustrating that almost none of them bought into Bullard’s arguments about resolving these zoning issues (obviously), but I actually downright screamed at my one student who had the temerity to ask, “Well, if they’re getting sick, why don’t they just move?”

(via tal9000)

Source: fuckyeahenvironmentaljustice

stickyembraces: ”[…] The same bad abstraction appears in his travelogue America (1988). Baudrillard speeds through the desert of America and merely sees signs floating by. He looks at Reagan on TV and sees only his smile. He hangs out in southern California and concludes that the United States is a ‘realized utopia’. He fails to see, however, the homeless, the poor, racism and sexism, people dying of AIDS, oppressed immigrants and fails to relate any of the phenomena observed to the vicissitudes of capitalism (he denies that capital ever existed in America!), or to the conservative political hegemony of the 1980s. Baudrillard’s imaginary is thus a highly abstract sign fetishism which abstracts from social relations and political economy in order to perceive the play of signs in the transvestite spectacles of the transaesthetic, transsexual, and transpolitical. Baudrillard’s ‘trans’ maoeuvres, however, are those of an idealist skimming the surface of appearances while speeding across the environment which he never contextualizes, understands, or really comes to terms with.” -Steven Best
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stickyembraces:

”[…] The same bad abstraction appears in his travelogue America (1988). Baudrillard speeds through the desert of America and merely sees signs floating by. He looks at Reagan on TV and sees only his smile. He hangs out in southern California and concludes that the United States is a ‘realized utopia’. He fails to see, however, the homeless, the poor, racism and sexism, people dying of AIDS, oppressed immigrants and fails to relate any of the phenomena observed to the vicissitudes of capitalism (he denies that capital ever existed in America!), or to the conservative political hegemony of the 1980s. Baudrillard’s imaginary is thus a highly abstract sign fetishism which abstracts from social relations and political economy in order to perceive the play of signs in the transvestite spectacles of the transaesthetic, transsexual, and transpolitical. Baudrillard’s ‘trans’ maoeuvres, however, are those of an idealist skimming the surface of appearances while speeding across the environment which he never contextualizes, understands, or really comes to terms with.” -Steven Best

Did you know?

yumadwhiteboy:

collectivecrack:

White American males constitute only 33% of the population. Yet, they occupy approximately:

  • 80% of tenured positions in higher education
  • 80% of the House of Representatives
  • 80-85% of the U.S. Senate
  • 92%of Forbes 400 executive CEO-level positions
  • 90% of athletic team owners
  • 97.7% of U.S. presidents

And then they flip out when they’re not allowed in the Women’s Tent. 

Thumbs up to the OP, but that comment had better not be a reference to trans women in feminist spaces.  

(via anarcho-queer)

Source:

impromptuonedykedanceparty: sourcedumal: sooolondon: ethiopienne: occupyallstreets: Study: Black Children Are Less Likely To Get Pain Medication In ERs The Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) revealed this past weekend that black children are dramatically less likely to receive pain medication in the emergency room than white children, according to ABC News. Black children are 39 percent less likely to receive the same medicine as white children with similar problems. Since little is known about children’s pain expression and perception, the PAS is searching for a direct reason for the findings. The study’s lead researcher, Dr. Tiffani J. Johnson, expressed her concerns about what she discovered. “If we don’t recognize disparities, we’re never going to be able to close the gaps,” Johnson said. “Now we need to look at where these differences are coming from. Are they at the patient level, the parent level or the physician level?” The PAS also revealed that black and Hispanic children are likelier to have long ER visits than white children. Researchers used data from the CDC’s National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, which included more than 2,000 children from 550 hospitals who visited the ER for abdominal pain between 2006 and 2009. A 2002 Institute of Medicine study found large patterns of racial disparities in medical treatments, including that “minorities are less likely to be given appropriate cardiac medications or to undergo bypass surgery, and are less likely to receive kidney dialysis or transplants” as well as more likely to receive painful or life-altering procedures like limb amputation. Source I can’t say I’m surprised by this, but it’s still fucking heartbreaking. This is what it means when you’re not seen as human  My fucking god. They are letting CHILDREN SUFFER? Fuck this. Fuck this shit. Ugh. ~The pain of white children is an urgent catastrophe - the suffering of black children is a spectacle.~ :(
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impromptuonedykedanceparty:

sourcedumal:

sooolondon:

ethiopienne:

occupyallstreets:

Study: Black Children Are Less Likely To Get Pain Medication In ERs

The Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) revealed this past weekend that black children are dramatically less likely to receive pain medication in the emergency room than white children, according to ABC News.

Black children are 39 percent less likely to receive the same medicine as white children with similar problems. Since little is known about children’s pain expression and perception, the PAS is searching for a direct reason for the findings.

The study’s lead researcher, Dr. Tiffani J. Johnson, expressed her concerns about what she discovered.

“If we don’t recognize disparities, we’re never going to be able to close the gaps,” Johnson said.

“Now we need to look at where these differences are coming from. Are they at the patient level, the parent level or the physician level?”

The PAS also revealed that black and Hispanic children are likelier to have long ER visits than white children.

Researchers used data from the CDC’s National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, which included more than 2,000 children from 550 hospitals who visited the ER for abdominal pain between 2006 and 2009.

A 2002 Institute of Medicine study found large patterns of racial disparities in medical treatments, including that “minorities are less likely to be given appropriate cardiac medications or to undergo bypass surgery, and are less likely to receive kidney dialysis or transplants” as well as more likely to receive painful or life-altering procedures like limb amputation.

Source

I can’t say I’m surprised by this, but it’s still fucking heartbreaking.

This is what it means when you’re not seen as human 

My fucking god. They are letting CHILDREN SUFFER?

Fuck this. Fuck this shit.

Ugh. ~The pain of white children is an urgent catastrophe - the suffering of black children is a spectacle.~ :(

Source: occupyallstreets

fuckyeahmarxismleninism: MOVE massacre: On May 13, 1985, 11 people, including five children, were burned alive after police, acting on orders from Democratic Mayor Wilson Goode in collusion with the Feds, dropped a powerful incendiary bomb on the Osage Avenue home of the largely Black MOVE commune in West Philadelphia. The firebombing followed a 12-hour siege during which the cops unloaded over 10,000 rounds of ammunition into the house. Firefighters on site were held back, and cops shot at anyone who tried to escape the burning building. The inferno spread, destroying 61 houses and leaving hundreds homeless in the African American neighborhood.
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fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

MOVE massacre: On May 13, 1985, 11 people, including five children, were burned alive after police, acting on orders from Democratic Mayor Wilson Goode in collusion with the Feds, dropped a powerful incendiary bomb on the Osage Avenue home of the largely Black MOVE commune in West Philadelphia.

The firebombing followed a 12-hour siege during which the cops unloaded over 10,000 rounds of ammunition into the house. Firefighters on site were held back, and cops shot at anyone who tried to escape the burning building. The inferno spread, destroying 61 houses and leaving hundreds homeless in the African American neighborhood.

(via queerandpresentdanger)

Source: fuckyeahmarxismleninism

But while the timing of his film is questionable, it’s even more difficult to accept his ugly caricature of Arab politics when Cohen’s shtick seems to hinge on little more than offensive, bigoted stereotypes of Arab men. Despite the very thin veneer of political satire, Cohen’s performance is a collection of generic, ill-conceived stereotypes borne of post-9/11 fear-mongering that ventures only to say, “Arab men are hairy and violent and they hate women and Jews.” His depiction is couched in nothing more than a dubiously funny accent and eccentric costume. Ultimately, it’s a White Israeli guy putting on brownface to make fun of Arabs. And if you don’t see something instinctively discomforting in that reality, I’m not sure anything I say will change your mind.


In the context of contemporary politics, it’s easy to see why such a bigoted portrayal of a racialized group of people has become so commonplace and normalized in our entertainment and media industries. After all, Arabs — and brown people around the world — are being murdered every day, often by American drones, American policemen, and Israeli gunfire sponsored by American taxes. This reality would be a lot more difficult to contend with had we — Western media and its consumers — not constructed Arabs and people of color as inherently violent, one-dimensional barbarians already killing themselves. Americans sleep better at night thinking their tanks and missiles and soldiers only kill people like “The Dictator” and not like the children they send safely off to school every day. They feel better about themselves thinking “black-on-black” crime is a fundamental inevitability, a social fact, and not a symptom of structural racism.

Hollywood’s Race Problem: On Ashton Kutcher and “The Dictator”

This is the piece I was working on this morning.

(via abudaii)

(via queerandpresentdanger)