Invoking the Name
In June, or pretty much any other month which is a designated ‘marginalised person month’ we get a lot of references to history and those who came before. People will often cite those figures to lend what they’re saying a weight, a seriousness. “This is rooted in HistoryTM now so you must listen to me!”
The name becomes less of a reference to a person, more like a set of sounds to indicate a tone/weight. If I knew anything about French philosophy I’d be citing Debord here but you smart people can fill in the gaps. In this, the person becomes unpersoned, and their complicated lives are sanded down to produce a rhetorical narrative. Marsha P Johnson becomes the person who threw the first brick at Stonewall and black transfemmes fought for your rights - ignoring that they fought for their own rights too and that cis/white people were also fighting! Black people become the mules for change while ProgressiveTM cis/white people can self-flaggelate, say the magic words (Marsha P Johnson) then continue their complacency and inaction. Or maybe on a good day they’ll sign another petition to send to a government who has said with their chest time and time again that they don’t give a fuck about Black/trans/Muslim etc people.
The use of the name in this warped way is eerily similar to how settlers will do a land recognition then do nothing to stop another pipeline being built through indigenous lands. The series of letters that was previously a name feels more like an abstraction, a spell of sorts. So let me reach for the magic wand and cast my own.
You’re invoking Audre Lorde who had to emigrate for respite from the violent racism of the US. How are you fighting for the people who need an escape that don’t even have her meagre economic means? How are you fighting the hostile environment? How are you involved in anti-raids groups?
You’re invoking Lili Elbe. How are you getting HRT into the hands of people for whom the conventional channels don’t work? How are you campaigning for universal healthcare where the line isn’t so long that trans people have to go private or take their own lives?
You’re invoking Sylvia Rivera. How are you pushing for the decriminalisation of sex work so that people forced like her who can’t access traditional employment can actually be safer as they go about their work? How are you creating a world in which trans people don’t have to do sex work unless they actually want to?
You’re invoking Leslie Feinberg. What are you doing to support Jewish people? What about people whose genders don’t fit neatly into the taxonomical framework of identity which the West insists on reinforcing? How are you creating a liberation which includes working class people at every level?
You’re invoking Marsha P. Johnson. How are you fighting so that black transfemmes can go about their days without the constant fear of violence? What are you doing to deconstruct the notions of gender through which Black transfemmes are seen as uniquely illegitimate?
You’re invoking the names but where are the actions that correspond to them? What are you doing to make these invocations more than just a series of empty syllables? Symbols are important, but they aren’t action in and of themselves. When we talk about issues related to marginalised groups people become so fixated on the symbols (#blm #transrightsarehumanrights) and the superficial wins (“look how well that TERF got dunked on this morning!!”) that we ignore the needs of the people that these struggles are about.
A symbol can’t house a homeless trans person kicked out by their parents. It can’t feed the families of romani people who are discriminated against in their employment. It can’t direct funds to a disabled person who has had their benefits consistently and aggressively slashed. What are you doing to fix that?
To put it simply. Shit or get off the pot and leave our names out of your mouths. If you’re not gonna be about it then at least get out of the way.
As always you can hit me up @naijaprince21 on Twitter if you have any thoughts and feelings about this! Always appreciate your support whether that’s verbal, financial or whatever else.
I’m less online lately, but whsiper on the winds and maybe you’ll fine me! Always appreciate your support whether that’s verbal, financial (ko-fi.com/tayowrites) or whatever else.