empty vessel (white ftms will not discuss race/gender privilege)

[tramp_o_line]

went to a meeting of tg/ts males this evening, the topic was supposedly race and privilege, which would include discussions of passing and discrimination. heard a few anecdotes of poc being harrased, seen as boys of colour in a car or shopping, and you know the story. The white guys spoke about being seen as being younger than they are, not

Comments

No Sense of Privilege

[anonymous]

Jay here!
What you say here meshes with my experience. And it isn't limited to FtMs. White MtFs have been just as notorious in their obliviousness.

I will say this to you...you are _not_ to the extent that I too have felt very alone and frustrated when I am the only one in a group speaking of the things you are speaking of. I think the feeling of aloneness is part of the package of white privilege...like it's built in to feel that way when we question it...does that make sense?

Anyway, I say good for you even though the conversations were difficult, impossible, seemed meaningless. They were not. Thanks for the reminder about a movement for political change. I've been working on a talk for some college gigs, and I need to put that very language in the center and front of the talk.

Take good care!

Re: No Sense of Privilege

[tramp_o_line]

Thanks Sennet

Re: No Sense of Privilege

[anonymous]

I have not experienced many white lesbians who really understand white privilege (and even fewer who understand class privilege but that's a different, though related, conversation).

Transitioning therefore hardens an understanding of the seen entirely through the lens of gender. Right? Why is it that trans/sexual/gender is seen as entirely gendered process? I think it is also a racial one, and I've asked white trans men to describe their transition stories solely as racial ones. Silence is the top response.

If mentoring is going to occur then it must come from us. From us telling our stories without fear nor apology. That's what I try to do anyway.

telling

[tramp_o_line]

on another note, I have a beautiful video clip of Eli Clare speaking in a workshop I gave at True Spirit (2002..?), on memory and affect -- talking about how he wanted to write the history of every aspect of his body as it changed.
I should send it to you. Perhaps he has done some of that now with your publication.

[idunn]

It amazes me how members of a group that's typically misunderstood or looked down upon will do the same to people further below them on the social ladder. I thought of it when Isiaih Washington, a black man, used a homophobic slur against his costar T.R. Knight and it's sad that you're witnessing that ;(

hello stranger

[tramp_o_line]

humans do this.
the point is to recognise the role one plays in it, and recognise how one persons oppression is bound up in anothers, etc.

thanks for stopping by....

Some clarity

[prettyboicris]

I feel that this whole thing has been taken out of context because the topic was NOT race and priveledge. The topic was more specifically Discrimination, Passing and Male Priviledge which would could tie to race. The Group did discuss how certain ethinicities have a more difficult time after transition because when they where seen as female they were less "threatening" because women are seen as less threatening (Hence the male Priveldge). We also discussed how white transmen get more attention after they have transitioned more in a "your a cute Boy" way and ethnic trans men get viewed as delinquents. I don't know if your outside stress affected how you perceived the discussion or if you missed these core issues while out of the room but it was discussed

Some clarity and cultural sensitivity

[tramp_o_line]

Dear Chris