Page 18
May/June 2020
Black & Pink News
Move Up, Move Up: Reconciling Privilege and Power By David Booth, Deputy Executive Director, Black & Pink
Over the course of my decadelong advocacy and organizing career I have worn a number of hats. Whether it’s an infuriated keyboard warrior too scared to stand on the front lines or an empathic leader sharing lessons on love and redemption, those hats carry a heavy responsibility. I find myself turning inward a lot lately and asking why do I advocate for the things I do? Dom calls this your why, and it sits heavy in my spirit. I have learned countless lessons and acquired valuable knowledge from my fellow reformists and abolitionists. The lessons have touched on planting seeds to cultivate community care, discovering what resources fertilize that care and which cause wilting, and finding the courage to stop apologizing for blooming. Much of this is steeped in the wisdom of women of color, especially Black women such as Mariame Kaba. These lessons have allowed me to grow from a sad, angry, and lonely queer person who’s experienced the trauma of incarceration to someone who whispers an “I love you” to their reflection. It’s in reflecting on my why for this work that it’s clear. None of these lessons would have been possible without pausing to make room for other experiences and identities; and allowing criticism to shed more
light. In learning to share my resources, I came to understand that creating space is mutually beneficial. Experience taught me to check the pulse of the conversation. Who belongs in this space? What identities are being discussed here? Who is dominating the conversation? I learned to listen for murmurs. Who should be here, but is absent? Why are those identities not in this conversation? Which identities are being erased intentionally or not? It is in the pockets of silence that we find the space that must be expanded to make room for those silenced. What exactly is this “space”? Why must it be found? Why must it be expanded? As a community, we’ve been taught to believe that something is wrong with the identities we carry. That our transness or queerness is unnatural. That Blackness and Brownness is to be feared. That experience with the system implies dangerousness. That the only acceptable way to be is a cis, white, straight, and able-bodied male. We owe it to ourselves to rethink the fable of ideal identity. No one holds either a perfect identity or all the answers for the sum of the
human experience. You exist as beautifully, uniquely you, flaws and all. Space is needed to unpack our complex life experiences and figure out how we move in this world. As a white, gender unbound person; who presents as a fairly handsome “male” (most of the time), I can’t speak for the experiences of a Black trans woman. I can’t tell them, or inform others on, how they have experienced the world. If I did, it would strip them of their agency. It would speak over them, and without their permission. It would assert an assumed control over their story. This Black trans woman would then have more obstacles to surmount just to reclaim ownership over their life experiences. Instead of lending a hand up, I would have actively contributed to their oppression and their silence. How can we, as a community, rethink the fable and claim the most authentic version of ourselves if we’re silencing unique perspectives? We can’t. Privilege is a spectrum and each of our identities adds or subtracts to the power we can wield. We make space by owning the inherent privileges we all carry. Owning is unapologetically stating your privileged experience. There is no shame in the privilege you hold, only in how you choose to
