I am visiting family in NYC this week. I went to a park where lots of people hang out - it was a lovely night with a cool breeze and the beautiful young people were there laughing and lounging. I marveled about how I had not seen any obviously trans identified people in my few days in the city. Alas, I thought too soon as a young Black man in a skirt and a wig asked me if I would like a Tarot reading for $3. I politely declined. He was hanging out with a crew of cool kids, mostly young women, alternate and likely with a slew of identities. I thought about how since high school I had always known young Black boys and men who were effeminate and gay who were embraced by the white girls and the alternative crowds. Here was another example. I see the old homophobias of Black American and Latin American cultures, the appeal of the exotic, now intersecting with neo colonial gender identities. I saw him again the next night with the same crowd huddled together beneath an overhang protected from the rain. I wanted to offer him $20 instead to sit and listen to me talk about gender, racism, homophobia, and sex. Brave new world indeed.
Omg yass!! The appeal of the exotic, intersecting with neo-colonial gender identities. Exactly. And we're watching it evolve so quickly as time goes on. This woman's post is just another new development.
And we can see how it compounds upon these dark, unresolved histories (like black gender nonconforming people being excommunicated from their original communities and going into white spaces where they are more likely to be embraced in queer culture).
I am visiting family in NYC this week. I went to a park where lots of people hang out - it was a lovely night with a cool breeze and the beautiful young people were there laughing and lounging. I marveled about how I had not seen any obviously trans identified people in my few days in the city. Alas, I thought too soon as a young Black man in a skirt and a wig asked me if I would like a Tarot reading for $3. I politely declined. He was hanging out with a crew of cool kids, mostly young women, alternate and likely with a slew of identities. I thought about how since high school I had always known young Black boys and men who were effeminate and gay who were embraced by the white girls and the alternative crowds. Here was another example. I see the old homophobias of Black American and Latin American cultures, the appeal of the exotic, now intersecting with neo colonial gender identities. I saw him again the next night with the same crowd huddled together beneath an overhang protected from the rain. I wanted to offer him $20 instead to sit and listen to me talk about gender, racism, homophobia, and sex. Brave new world indeed.
Omg yass!! The appeal of the exotic, intersecting with neo-colonial gender identities. Exactly. And we're watching it evolve so quickly as time goes on. This woman's post is just another new development.
And we can see how it compounds upon these dark, unresolved histories (like black gender nonconforming people being excommunicated from their original communities and going into white spaces where they are more likely to be embraced in queer culture).