Hi Monica, Thanks for your post. I think African America to a large extent has been lulled in to a state of being complaciant. With the support of RKelly, the NAACP standing up for Michael Vick and silent about so many other things.
I've heard about that "Shirley" person and the thought of blackface in the new century disgusts me. But the stage has been set for the Shirley's of this country by rap music and the companies that back them. If Black people are on the radio and tv calling us the N word and B's and H's, that lays the groundwork for others to think it's okay. And it's not, never was and never will be okay.
Thanks for your voice, we have to speak about it or it will be 1957 again for us instead of 2007.
I appreciated your response to the person whom calls herself Syimone. There have been so many Syimone's in this community known as "da ville" or Louisville, Kentucky who lead an illusionist lifestyle on a daily basis regardless of sexual identity, orientation or financial stability. Has self-hatred and fear reduced Syimone to accepting a racist performer as entertainment? Does Syimone know who she is based on lineage or is it just based on sexual identity? One may never know since instead of showing an ounce of intelligence to debate you, she took the easy way out. Ironically, the tactic that Syimone used compares to the new Jim Crow Jr. Guide; which is currently out of stock at all Borders across the country. (That was humor - making light out of pain). Maybe Syimone forgot about her beginnings as an illusionist, the ones who gave you support would not support a racist illusionist. Years ago there was a movie called Victor Victoria. Make a long story short... the plot of the movie examined a woman pretending to be a man in order tray a woman. Now the plot is still the same except now it is a racist performer pretending to be a performer in order to promote negative racist stereotypes. In addition, this performer is old enough to have seen the post cards, playing cards and racist cartoon characters in magazine ads not too long ago of the past. A racist will use any means necessary to continue their beliefs, so why do we have to be quiet! One Love….Sister Ronnie
P.S For the non-believers check out this http://www.industryears.com/
3:22 AM
[Image] TransGriot Note- This was going to be my September 2007 newspaper column. The column wasn't printed due to threats of legal action.
-------------------------------------------------------
To Syimone (And Every Black Female Illusionist Who Thinks Like Her) “I’m not offended by Shirley Q. Liquor because my sexuality is more important to my sense of who I am that my skin color is, and I don’t see the so called Black community out there in the streets protesting for my right to love and fuck and marry who I want.”
That was a quote from Syimone, one of The Connection’s female impersonators. It was originally printed in a June Rolling Stone article about Chuck’s jacked-up minstrel show persona and was recently reprinted in the July 18 issue of the LEO. (the Louisville Eccentric Observer, a local alternative newspaper.)
While we African-Americans aren’t monolithic in thought and she has a constitutional right to her opinion, this comment is just begging for me to expound on it.
News flash for you, Syimone. Race overrides everything in the USA. The color line and the attitudes that accompany it predate the founding of our country by 150 years. So check that birth certificate of yours. It definitely doesn’t have a box to check for gay or straight on it.
There are also African-Americans working for the marriage equality you yearn for. Check out the website of an organization called the National Black Justice Coalition at http://www.nbjcoalition.org/
One of the things I’ve observed and disliked about the African-American illusionist community over the last twenty-five years is some of its members egocentric selfishness combined with Clarence Thomasesque hatred of their ethnic background.
Syimone, since you’re so quick to denigrate the African-American community about what they haven’t done for you, I’d like to ask what you have done FOR the African-American community?
That’s what I thought.
[Image]But let’s examine your comment that your sexuality is more important than your ethnic background. Since that’s what you claim (and I think it’s bull feces), where were you when the Fairness laws were under attack in 2004? Didn’t see you at Metro City Hall that night confronting the Reichers. Have you lobbied our legislators in Frankfort or Washington DC for the marriage equality you say is so important to you?
This hatred of your Blackness is not the only issue about you and some of your female illusionist sisters that irritates me and the African-American transpeeps who ARE doing thangs in the community. We get annoyed when we see y’all sit on your silicone-enhanced asses and constantly complain about what peeps aren’t doing for you, but y’all won’t step out of your show world cocoons to be informed or give a damn about issues that matter to the ENTIRE African-American community gay and straight.
So as the old saying goes, if you ain’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.
Syimone, I vehemently disagree with your misguided statement that your sexuality overrides your ethnicity. You may believe that fairy tale, but in the real world our dealings with white-dominated orgs such as HRC and GLAAD make a mockery of that. If sexuality overrides ethnicity, then why are there over twenty Black pride events scattered all over our country and around the world?
You chose Chuck over your people and you look like a Condoleezza Rice clone in the process. If you said that because you’re angry at the African-American community or were misquoted, then please contact me and I’ll give you the chance in a future TransGriot column to explain yourself.
But Syimone, if this is the prevailing sentiment of you and your female illusionist sisters, then y’all are as clueless as Chuck and it’s past time for all of y’all to check the alarm clock and wake up.
posted by Monica Roberts at 11:00 PM on Aug 31, 2007
New comments have been disabled for this post by a blog administrator.
"Syimone, Syimone, Syimone...."
3 Comments -
Hi Monica,
Thanks for your post. I think African America to a large extent has been lulled in to a state of being complaciant. With the support of RKelly, the NAACP standing up for Michael Vick and silent about so many other things.
I've heard about that "Shirley" person and the thought of blackface in the new century disgusts me. But the stage has been set for the Shirley's of this country by rap music and the companies that back them. If Black people are on the radio and tv calling us the N word and B's and H's, that lays the groundwork for others to think it's okay. And it's not, never was and never will be okay.
Thanks for your voice, we have to speak about it or it will be 1957 again for us instead of 2007.
10:21 AM
The Forces of Intolerance are already hard at work. They don't want to turn the clock back to 1957, they want to turn it back to 1932.
As I said in another post, i'm Black first before transgder or any other part of my perssonality comes into play
1:42 PM
Monica,
I appreciated your response to the person whom calls herself Syimone. There have been so many Syimone's in this community known as "da ville" or Louisville, Kentucky who lead an illusionist lifestyle on a daily basis regardless of sexual identity, orientation or financial stability.
Has self-hatred and fear reduced Syimone to accepting a racist performer as entertainment? Does Syimone know who she is based on lineage or is it just based on sexual identity?
One may never know since instead of showing an ounce of intelligence to debate you, she took the easy way out. Ironically, the tactic that Syimone used compares to the new Jim Crow Jr. Guide; which is currently out of stock at all Borders across the country. (That was humor - making light out of pain).
Maybe Syimone forgot about her beginnings as an illusionist, the ones who gave you support would not support a racist illusionist.
Years ago there was a movie called Victor Victoria. Make a long story short... the plot of the movie examined a woman pretending to be a man in order tray a woman. Now the plot is still the same except now it is a racist performer pretending to be a performer in order to promote negative racist stereotypes. In addition, this performer is old enough to have seen the post cards, playing cards and racist cartoon characters in magazine ads not too long ago of the past. A racist will use any means necessary to continue their beliefs, so why do we have to be quiet!
One Love….Sister Ronnie
P.S For the non-believers check out this http://www.industryears.com/
3:22 AM