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In a recent post, DarkMatter, a non-binary collaboration between South Asian artists Alok Vaid-Menon and Janani Balasubramanian, wrote “Transmisogyny teaches us that femininity is a selfish and individualistic endeavor, not a collective emancipatory project for liberation.”

White feminism buys into this transmisogynistic myth of individualistic femininity. A quintessential example of this phenomenon is the white feminist Hillary Clinton supporter, who places more importance on having a woman for president than the fact that said figurehead has consistently thrown black, working class and women of color directly under the white supremacist neo-imperialist bus through supporting military dictatorships, the ongoing criminalization of black and brown youth and mass incarceration.

Emblematic of this individualistic femininity, mainstream (read: White) feminism insists that the mere presence of a uterus-endowed individual in a position of power is a saving grace and the end-goal, regardless of her politics (which are, in case you missed it, explicitly anti-black, transphobic and damaging particularly to women of color).

This kind of individualistic identity politicking means that you, white feminists, get real busy fighting for a woman president instead of fighting for the rights and bodies of the black women and trans femmes of color who got you that 74 cents to the white man’s dollar in the first place, and who are continuing to make spaces for you to live and thrive, even at the expense of their own labor and blood. DarkMatter writes: “Transfeminine people thriving and resisting in a world that continues to dismiss and demonize our femininity is feminist work that has reverberations for all people (and especially cisgender women).”

From the Stonewall Riots, to suffrage to action against the transphobic and misogynistic House Bill 2, trans and queer women of color have been fighting to get free.

All the while, white feminism has and continues to benefit from this labor. Still, feminism insists that trans women of color somehow must be “included” or “integrated” into the feminist framework. That because of effort to be “inclusive,” white feminists deserve to congratulate themselves on inviting trans and queer women to sit with them at the proverbial table.

White feminism needs a reality check: It’s actually not your table to begin with. Queer and trans women of color have been doing this work since long before your mom was burning bras, and their work refuses to fit neatly into the white feminist box; this is work that is crucial to fighting for the rights of all women.

Centering the work and the struggle of trans women and queer women of color, then, is requisite to this collective emancipatory project for liberation, as DarkMatter describes it. If anything, the present and ongoing fight against House Bill 2 would remind us of this truth: until queer and trans women, and particularly queer and trans women of color are free and thriving, nobody is.

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