Episode 51: Vision Dreaming for Black Trans Liberation - On Imagination, Mutual Aid, and the Road Ahead

The Activist Files Podcast

How do attacks on trans organizing and rights impact related movements for bodily autonomy, reproductive justice, and liberation? On episode 51 of "The Activist Files," our Communications Associate Lexi Webster talks with Imara Jones, award-winning journalist, content creator and thought leader, founder of TransLash Media, and host of the TransLash podcast, and Diamond Stylz, activist, media maker, executive director of Black Trans Women Inc., and host of the Marsha’s Plate podcast, about how the work of movements for trans justice can inform social justice organizing on all liberation struggles.

Their discussion centers around the ways in which an emboldened post-Trump era extremist movement on the right has set into motion a plan whose long-term goal is the creation and enforcement of a white ethnostate and how such a plot relies on the eradication of minorities deemed deviant, the targeting of reproductive rights, and the elimination of any and all protections afforded to trans individuals and communities across the country. They discuss the need for a broad, intersectional approach by progressives who purport to fight for queer and trans liberation, and the continued urgency to build popular momentum for forward-thinking policies by and for Black trans people. They argue that to combat an organized and well-resourced white supremacist Christofascist, nationalist movement would require that the needs of Black trans communities are not only acknowledged, but prioritized by mainstream LGB institutions and that trans-interest groups engage in deeper dialogue and collaboration to provide guidance toward those ends. They also touch on the importance of mutual aid in this work and how our collective eagerness and ability to meet the material needs of Black trans people can act as a litmus test to assess the health of our society and movements.

Resources:

Organizations and public figures:

House of Tulip, New Orleans
The Transgender District, founded by three black trans women in 2017 as Compton’s Transgender Cultural District
Tourmaline, Black trans artist

Quotes and publications:

Biopower, theory of Michel Foucault
Necropolitics, theory of Achille Mbembe
Raquel Willis’ speech at the 2020 Brooklyn Liberation event
Toni Morrison quote
Julian K. Jarboe quote