Trans Rights Are Human Rights, White Lady Radicalization, and Queer Traitors on Substack
NSFS: Not Safe for School, your snark-filled antidote to racism and corruption in education. Follow @postphdtheblog on Twitter and @allisonharbin_postphd on Instagram
I’m over it this week, as always, GWM make sure we can’t have nice things. After trolling some trolls, I talk about what it was like to teach when my students’ parents were dying last year.
Dear friends and fam,
I’m pissed I have to do this, frankly, and am officially requesting a refund on my time investment into Substack as a platform. As per usual, GWM (generic white men) are the source of everyone’s pain, disillusionment, and disgust. I’m reclaiming my time. Next week I’ll be on a different platform (don’t worry, you don’t need to do anything) but until then, allow me to troll some GWM trolls:
NSFS is hosted by the platform Substack. There has been quite a flurry of discussion about Substack’s engagement with virulent anti-Trans writers, with the ALL IMPORTANT terms of CANCEL CULTURE FREEDOM OF SPEECH GAH GAH GAH. Long story short: Substack gave a ton of money to white men who believe that critique involves actively trolling transwomen on dating profiles, life, twitter, et al.
I’m tired of both of these contexts, as the argument of both is only hazily-rhetorical and often just plain circular. The problem with these circular arguments is that they are weak and almost always besides the point.
As you are probably already aware, the debate has been framed in the context of “cancel culture” (WaPo OpEd by Megan McArdle) and “Free Speech.” In this Generic White Woman’s article, she states that the Substack controversy is really more about a “bigger story”….. but what could possibly be a “bigger” story than the marginalization, trolling, and violence against Trans people? After all, trans rights ARE human rights.
As Ms. Generically Outraged White Woman writes, that what “really” matters in this debate over allowing anti-Trans writers spread not just hate, but also active trolling of Trans people, is “even more important than who wins these individual fights is what those victories signal for the rest of us”
That’s complete and utter bullshit and I ain’t having it.
This is about my Trans brothers and sisters’ lives. This is about both their inner psychological and physical well being.
So actually, WaPo asshole, who “WINS” these debates *IS* actually of critical importance. Let’s not bury the lead here.
The “free speech” of these white men is not more important than the freedom and safety of transpeople.
Period.
WHY?! So glad you (didn’t) ask. If you want to know, this excellent article by Jude Ellison Doyle, “Substack is Not a Neutral Platform,” is the best synopsis of this tediously important issue. Doyle asks:
What’s the difference between criticism and harassment? Glenn Greenwald and Michael Tracey maintain that Greenwald quote-tweeting less powerful media workers with fewer followers — essentially unleashing his followers on them — is simply criticism, and journalists who complain about harassment are whiny babies.
Dear Trolls (aka GWM and GWW*):
Andrew Sullivan is a transphobic gay man who sucks and actively prosecutes Trans people for the crime of existing. I put him on Ursula's body because they both ugly, and I like the gender-fuckery of it all.
So, fuck you Substack, a hearty fuck you to Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Sullivan, you queer-traitors , and of course our rosy-cheeked CEO of Substack Christopher Best. et al. Your fight for legitimacy is sad and if it weren’t inciting violence on trans people, it’d just be plain pitiful and embarrassing to watch. Here’s lookin’ at you, GWM, and all your toxic shittiness.
::ahem now we return to your normally scheduled content::
How to Radicalize a White Lady:
On the last day of school before lockdown last year, the only sane decision I made was to collect my students’ personal cell phone numbers. I knew they would respond to texts, just as I knew they didn’t read email. As chaos reigned in my classroom on that day, students everywhere, desks abandoned, and tears and hugs spreading all the germs amongst us, I passed around a crinkled ripped out sheet of notebook paper asking students to put their names and cell numbers down.
This direct, and unfiltered, line of communication with my students became transformative. I bore witness and am now giving testimony to their experiences, because white people, we really have to do better. To say the least.
In many ways, my already deeply entrenched suspicion of authority figures and my outspoken contempt for the invisible stranglehold systemic racism has over us all became further radicalized-- by texting with teenagers. Malcolm X by any means necessary meets Gen Z.
Exactly a year ago (nearly to the day), one of my tenth grade students texted me at 11 PM asking me about the chances of survival if someone had to go to the hospital to receive oxygen. Of course, we didn’t have numbers on this then, and I knew that wasn’t really what she was asking. In a follow up text, she explained her mom had just been taken away to the hospital because she was having trouble breathing; her symptoms had gotten worse.
My student was asking me if their mom would survive. We texted throughout the night, and I focused on statistics and facts that would calm her down. I couldn’t tell her if her mom would survive or not, but I could listen to her and offer comfort. I was honored they felt comfortable reaching out to me, and am endlessly glad that she did-- I wouldn’t have wanted them to go down a panic spiral alone.
The sirens in Brooklyn were nonstop. Even my headphones didn’t drown them out. They were my soundtrack as I recorded videos and devised creative writing assignments around self-expression and self-love for my students.
Within one month of the lock-down, I sent out a google survey to my students about how covid-19 had impacted their lives so far. I asked if they had any relatives who had died or come down with it, and how high their stress levels were. The school had only one guidance counsellor that the students trusted, and she was brand new. I knew they were not getting the emotional support from other teachers. So, I did my best to provide emotional support to mine.
Of my 128 students who took the survey, 88% reported not being able to sleep through the night, or having anxiety so debilitating they didn’t feel like doing anything. Further, 71% of students felt like their school didn’t care about them, and that they did not feel comfortable seeking out school officials for guidance on anything. But those are not the numbers that were the most devastating.
Over 60% of my students knew someone who had contracted covid-19.
What’s worse, 40% of my students had already experienced the death of a family member or close family friend due to the virus. This is only within the first four weeks of lock down.
Forty percent. That’s a lot of death and trauma for adults, let alone adolescents. Did I mention that my students were overwhelmingly Black and brown? As in, 96% of the entire student body at the school were BIPOC.
My teenage students didn’t know if their parents would survive or not. Luckily, the mother who was rushed to the hospital made a slow recovery and was able to return home about a few weeks later. In the meantime, my student had to crash with her aunt, who in all fairness, did sound really lame. We mostly talked about that, to be honest.
And then, I would turn on the news to see angry white people shouting about civil liberties and refusing to wear masks. I heard my parents’ initial hyper-concern with the virus soften into a flexible interpretation of mask rules, and I always understood that this was the product of the environment they were in.
And then it clicked: white people began relaxing their approach to the virus when it became abundantly clear that the vast majority of people suffering (and dying) from the virus in the U.S. were BIPOC. No need to take a pandemic seriously, it was only killing poor Black and brown people in cities. Who cares about them?
These two sides of my experience of the pandemic, one from the urban center of New York City where I saw my teenage students descend into trauma and chaos. And then, remotely, following the white response to the virus in Georgia. This stark juxtaposition solidified my position that white people, by way of the privilege their/our skin color affords, are monsters.
I don’t know where that puts me, since I am so white I glow in the dark. Since I am from the South, descended from people who attended debutante balls, were cotton merchants, and even slave owners. My privilege is built off BIPOC exploitation. While I have been grappling with this reality my entire life, the pandemic made me see this with horrifying immediacy. I could not help my students, except to offer comfort. I could not protect my students. But, I could fight for them.
And that’s how I became (more) radicalized against white supremacy.
REPARATION OPPORTUNITY FOR THE TRAGICALLY HETERO:
Hey, reader, first of all, thanks so much for making it all the way to this point in the newsletter. Thanks so much for reading. If you feel like doing a good today, let’s contribute to the National Center for Transgender Equality and prove that not all straight white ppl are the same.
xoxo,
Allison
*am I collapsing the term Generic-White-Man for Troll? Yes! But for the sake of gender binary parity, I also do it for Generic-White-Women who are also part of so many problems it makes your head swim. Do I think that all white men are trash? Well, after 7 years in doctorate research, I can safely say, history doesn’t cast them in a great light. And after 34 years of being forced to mainly read white men and have my experience either trotted out for the amusement of white men or to their scorn, I gotta say, the batting average ain’t great. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I’m not holding my breath. As for white women… obviously that’s a tad more complex since I am one, but suffice it to say, unless you know you’re part of the problem (as I do), then you really are part of the problem.
Other Posts About Neoliberal Trashfires & Generic White Men:
