It's Trans Awareness Week, and I think back to the Black Trans Flag, the dominance of whiteness in this queer space, and the lack of care white ppl have for their Black queer siblings
I've been here for years, let's go down memory lane

#BlackMastodon #TransAwarenessWeek

I posted this flag on July 14, 2020. It didn't end well. From my archive, I can at least post my responses to ppl being angry with me about the flag

"I don't understand. The black bar just adds adds a space for visibility for black trans and non binary folks. I seem to understand that non binary for white ppl has to be the bar. And that extra visibility for Blk folks means there's non for non binary aka white ppl. It's not a zero sun game and also like is said in the post... I didn't design it"

"So. Blk folks can't have added visibility within a flag unless it's as an ammendment

If that's how wp are reading the chevron on the pride flag then that makes me uncomfortable"

#BlackMastodon #BlackMastodonHistory
#TransAwarenessWeek

"That flag has started a super demeaning discussion now

'oh it would be from pv'

Imagine hating when Blk non binary and Trans folks advocate for themselves and get demeaned for it.

BLK Trans women are no longer w us a rate we can't understand. No one on here talks about it.

It's too much and I don't have the bandwidth and now this.

Ppl are treating that flag post w such VIM"

#BlackMastodonHistory #BlackMastodon #TransAwarenessWeek

"And without the slightest bit of irony are WP discussing where and how Blk and POC should be represented on the flag. 'here's ur corner, now shut up'"

#BlackMastodonHistory #BlackMastodon #TransAwarenessWeek

White queer were coming up with mock flag designs that would allow for Blk ppl to be represented bc "Just because youre a minority grou doesn't give yu the right to shit on other ones"

Then this person blocked me, realized they didn't even understand the flag, and apologized to their followers and never sent one my way

and Yes I am starting #BlackMastodonHistory bc I and others who have been here for years have dealt w some shit

#BlackMastodon #TransAwarenessWeek

@CaribenxMarciaX I particularly remember when this happened, it was so unashamedly cruel to you
@CaribenxMarciaX thank you. I’ll added it to my list of hashtags.

@zhivi Im going to post under that from now on when I need to

I'm a hashtag factory LOL

@CaribenxMarciaX Anyone who views visibility of and care for Black people as a personal attack has internalized hatred of Black people as part of their identity. If someone feels "shit on" when people who demonstrably have a rougher go at things are lifted up (even just symbolically), they are emotionally invested in the continuance of other people's suffering. It's straight up white supremacist shit. And racist af for them to ignore the harm to you, racist for them to view making amends to you as unnecessary

@CaribenxMarciaX that discourse was hell

there was so much, "you're erasing nb people by making us acknowledge race" and all the black nonbinary folks of the world just suddenly stopped existing 

@winterdemon @CaribenxMarciaX

Looks at myself

Sees that I am a Black nonbinary person

"I don't feel so good"

@CaribenxMarciaX
"Just because youre a minority grou doesn't give yu the right to shit on other ones"

They were just so close to actually getting it. So close.

@CaribenxMarciaX thank you so much for this thread! This is the first time I see this flag and as a non-binary person my first knee-jerk reaction was "hey that white bar represented me and its gone!" but then I read through the rest of the thread and realised... Why shouldn't non-binary be represented by a black bar? Black is as good a colour as any other that's not culturally linked to masculinity or femininity. So yes, I will stand for this flag.

@MxAlba @CaribenxMarciaX
I remember this discussion too and I remember that I saw no reason why nonbinary people should not identify with a black bar instead of a white one, as I understand it, in the science of physics, the white reflects all the colors and the black absorbs all of them, so black is as good as a symbol as white for nb, only that the black bar can represent Black people, and the white bar can't. so win-win - with the black bar!

 

thank you Marcia X for telling that piece of fedi history, back then I just scraped on the surface..

@MxAlba @CaribenxMarciaX Yes, many of the pride flags conceptually use black or shades of grey to represent similar ideas.

I guess people dig in about this because it's so ingrained to think of white people as the universal default kind of human, due to white supremacy, even though white people are and always have been a minority in the world over the short (in human history) time that our skin colour has even existed.

@CaribenxMarciaX remembering this is unlocking memories and connections i didn't make at the time

like the capital-w White queers whining about how they were being replaced 

@CaribenxMarciaX a lot bad twitter habits are going to come across. Finger crossed they get dropped

I still occasionally fill the need to be aggressive because I mistakenly think a toot will attract trolls only to be pleasantly suprised

@CaribenxMarciaX Meanwhile the Nonbinary AND Agender pride flags both have black bars on them so in what universe do white nonbinary people actually feel represented by a white bar -in particular- that's extremely sus come on white enbies stfu.

@CaribenxMarciaX White LGBTQIA+* "I don't see color"

 

White LGBTQIA+* >:(((

*it's not very queer to be a racist little shit.

@CaribenxMarciaX I don’t get those people… yes, the white bar in the trans flag represents nonbinary people but why can’t black also stand for nonbinary? A bar in a flag can have multiple meanings, and there is a black bar in the nonbinary flag for a reason.
@CaribenxMarciaX (of course the real reason they say shit like that is because they’re racist, but that goes without saying)
@enby_of_the_apocalypse @CaribenxMarciaX I've had to ""identify"" with that white bar for years; white people can ""identify"" with that black bar for years too!
@CaribenxMarciaX i def remember that, whew what a fucking mess