In the last few weeks of class, we talked about black bodies and trans bodies in sports and in general. Instantly my mind went to analyzing and drawing parallels from the past. I thought back to how black people were made to do entertainment and labor for the white masses with little regard for their own financial and physical well-being. I thought back to trans women who did the labor during Stone Wall and how they are still ostracized in the LGBT community.
Black and trans bodies will be seen as discardable despite all we do continuously for our communities and society as a whole. Our bodies are integral to keeping society running yet there are no thank-yous, kindness, or consideration when making a newer and supposedly “better” society. This echoes the history of America, using black bodies to progress in capitalism with no remorse for those that it hurts. Then when black people demand that we get our fair share we are met with violence and get called ridiculous. When will this stop? How long do black people have to get the short end of the stick and get robbed of our fair share?
Trans people are killed at alarming rates and nothing is happening. There is no justice even when we give so much of ourselves to the public. We put ourselves out there to normalize our existence through stories but still, we are called less than. This world does not allow trans joy. When trans people try to do things that would be called normal for any cis person we get called predators and freaks. It is not fair, plain and simple. Society as a whole hates that trans people are being normalized and the last bite of conservatism is fighting for dear life. I wish it would die quietly because I don’t know how much more I can take.
I don’t want to undermine the major improvements in life these communities were able to accomplish but I do wish things were going faster. All of this moving at a turtle’s pace is not enough for me. I want radical change in society, not centimeter towards centralism.
Unruly Bodies 
I also wish that progress wasn’t so slow, as if it requires a bigoted generation to die off before someone’s existence can be validated and accepted. Like, ugh. I also think about bell hooks’ critique of Paris is Burning when you first begin talking about the subjection of sports labor on black bodies; if it isn’t labor, it becomes spectacle that is often framed in a way to appeal to white men. The question is when this will not be the case, because it appears that an entire generation is waiting for the change to be accepted.
This essay is literally gospel. Where is our meteor of change? Where is our grand revolution that creates a new life? We know it’s not gonna be a big-bang that ties everything into a nice little bow and we suddenly get world peace, but it’s exhausting to keep waiting! Sometimes it feels like we’re Rapunzel waiting for someone to save us as our blood trickles down the tower. When we finally have something, people always find a way to take it from us and set us back a century. I say “us” as a collective because if black trans people aren’t safe and seen than no one is safe or seen in the LGBTQ+ community; and even if they are….are they really? Black trans people shouldn’t be a battering ram for the rest of the community, they deserve to be at the forefront of receiving comfort and appreciation, because THEY DESERVE IT. A body in the community is a body in the community, if one falls there should be outrage from everyone, not a single life should be ignored…so where is the outcry? I feel the same frustration you do, the same confusion and rage because this is seriously the most exhausting and emotionally draining wait, and what’s worse is…we’re out there, protesting, honoring our community, doing what they tell us to do in order to be seen…AND IT’S STILL NOT ENOUGH! Why can’t we just be human too?
Yeah, all of this. I just submitted an essay for my trans studies class where the assignment was to propose a way to solve a problem facing transgender people today and it was so hard to think of a response that wasn’t a revolution. The growing amount of trans representation and recognition has been met with twice as much backlash and hatred from people who there is no arguing with. We have to keep fighting for justice, but at what point do we decide that talking will never move a brick wall? At what point do we start tearing it down with our bare hands, and how?