scans_daily | Why Anti-Oppression Is Serious Business

Regarding the comment thread from yesterday, I felt it was important to post the following.

ETA: "Because this community is meant to be as safe a space for everyone as we can make it and there has been proof of a certain way of thinking that is harmful please read and consider these things that will help make scans_daily the best it can be.

We want to reiterate that this post wasn't intended to further chastise or berate psychopathicus_rex personally. As has been stated, the situation was a reminder that anyone is capable of being discriminatory, even when the intent isn't there. Hopefully it serves to make us all aware that an off-handed comment from a position of privilege can be still be hurtful and remind us that we have a diverse community here and for us all to be aware of that."

Hat tip to

shemale for sharing this.

For those of you who wonder why anti-oppression is such serious business, it's because for too many of us, the following is a harsh, disturbing, reality.

Warning: Potentially triggering for survivors of assault and abuse.

I can say that hate crime has always been a part of my life and earlier life.

I was beaten by family, in their attempt to beat it out of me.
I was beaten every year at school, every year--it never failed, i got beat up.
And it was because of my gender expression.

But for me, though, the one thing that really stands out for me, as an adult, was here in MARTA. I was coming home from work, and it was a late night, in retail sometimes you have to stay really late at night, and it looked like i was catching the last train around one, one-thirty in the morning.

I was waiting for the last train on the east-bound platform, and a little group of men came up behind me. Now i immediately got nervous, and was like "okayyyy i don't know what their motives are" just in general, you know they looked kind of shifty.

What happened, one of the gentlemen, i guess he found me attractive. So he was trying to approach me to talk to me. Now, keep in mind that he had no problem in the conversation that we had, i was just like "i'm good, i'm in a relationship, i'm okay." And he was just like, you know, he was insistent.

And one of his friends, i guess, felt the need to clue him into the fact that i'm transgender. And he became embarrassed, i guess because he felt like i had publicly duped him. Now keep in mind that i'm rejecting him the whole time!

Then he started screaming things at me on the platform, you know, "you faggot, you tried to trick me" and i'm like "mmmm no i didn't, i'm not interested."

Of course, you know, any kind of crazy, you try to avoid the situation, so i walked away to the other end of the platform. Now keep in mind, i ordinarily would've just left the platform altogether, but i'm thinking this may be the last train and i gotta get on. So i move to the other end of the platform and the young man proceeds to follow me up the platform. Now keep in mind his entire entourage is with him, and i'm just trying to avoid the situation getting worse.

No one, by the way, on the train or on the platform offered to help or tried to tell them to leave me alone; as a matter of fact, people are kind of chuckling.

So the train comes and i faked him out, i went on the train ran out the other door ran back down and tried to get back on. I try to find a seat; it's actually kind of crowded. I was trying to find a seat and i hear the driver say "please don't hold the doors, stop holding the doors, the train cannot move while you're holding the doors". What it actually was, was his friends holding the door for him so he could find me.

I ran like three cars up, i'm thinking i've avoided the situation, i'm good, and he follows me through, along the train, and comes on the train. Now he's running behind me and i don't see him, and then the people around me are like "behind you look out!"

And i turned around and he'd turned his rings around, and he slaps me in the face as hard as he could.

Now he hit me hard enough to where i actually hit the side of the train window, because i was standing. And he left marks in my face, i had ring marks in my face.

Now, the horrible part of it was that i got attacked, but the thing that really sticks out most to me is that, what happened on the train is people began to laugh. No one offered me any assistance, no one said "oh my god are you okay;" people began to laugh.

So in shame, i left the train because i'm like "okay, what am i gonna do." I think, first thing, that i need to call the police. Now i'm thinking that, as the train does finally pull off, that okay, he's accomplished what he wanted to accomplish, i'm good.

As i'm dialing 911 he's coming up the platform toward me. And i'm like "oh god oh god." So i'm talking to the police and i'm making it clear at the payphone that i'm talking to the police and i'm like "yes, i'm reporting an incident and he's walking towards me, he's a black male" and, you know, i'm describing him. And he hears me on the phone, and i guess he gets scared and he runs, it's cool. But i'm talking through the phone and they referred me to the MARTA police.

The MARTA police finally came... Now, i've just gotten attacked, i got laughed at on the train, so a cop comes up. Initially, he's concerned for my well-being. He's like "are you okay ma'am, deh deh-deh deh-deh." So then, out of the blue, he goes "well can i see some ID?"

And i'm like "okay" so i show him my ID. Now keep in mind that this was before i was able to get my name changed and all that stuff, and he goes "oh my god you're a man." And i'm like "noooo, i used to be, but you know not really." And he's like "well um so what did you do to get slapped?" His whole approach changed: "So what did you do to deserve it? Are you sure you weren't trying to hit on him? 'Cause i know i'd knock you out if you were trying to hit on me." Officer, MARTA police officer. And i'm like "no, no sir," and he starts laughing, he thinks it's funny.

Now this female police officer who's with him, she's consoling me she's like "okay, please ignore him, he's ignorant, we're going to file a report". So i'm walking back to the MARTA police station, and this officer thinks it's hilarious, so he proceeds to talk to every man on the platform on the way there: "Are you the one who slapped him? Are you the one who slapped him?" And he's cracking up like it's just so funny to him.

Now i don't know what radio calls were made between the time that he initially met up with me and the time that we got to the station, but when we got to the station all the officers stared at me, and they bust out laughing at me again. Now these are the officers.

And the officer that trapped me, he goes: "before i search you do you have any weapons?" And i'm like "why are you searching me? I'm just here to file a report." He's like, "well any time you come to the police precinct we have the right to search you." And i'm like "um well there is a knife" [laughter] "there is a knife in my purse, but i did not pull it when the man attacked me, it was just there."

So then they get an even bigger smile; only in Atlanta does the victim become the perpetrator, and they just think this is so funny. So he actually threatened to take me to jail because i had a knife.

So they put me in a low holding area and i'm waiting thinking "oh my god i can't believe i just got attacked and now i'm going to go to jail;" i was just completely flabbergasted by it. But in any case, the woman police officer comes in and she goes, "i'm sorry, i'm so sorry you're going through this," and she goes "i want you to file a report of every thing that's going on, and i'm going to take it." No one else had offered to take my report. So she gives me a piece of paper, and i write down everything that had happened all the way up to that second. And she has tears in her eyes, and she's like "i'm so sorry, i can't imagine what you're going through i'm so sorry."

So, hate crimes are those things that, when someone is attacked for being in a perceived group--and that night i was perceived as trans, gay, whatever, and because of that i was attacked, and no one at any point, on the train, on the platform, from the officer, at the precinct, no one offered to help. And that is a hate crime. And i'm here tonight to let you know it happens; it happened here on campus; my friend Annette was attacked here, verbally attacked on this campus and they threatened to shoot her.

And we need to understand that it's borne out of ignorance, and it's condoned by people who have a problem with our lifestyles and they think that it's okay to hurt us.

And at the end of the day, what we do should have no effect on other people. and i think if we leave people alone, to each his own, a lot of this stuff will be avoided.

ETA: Links to Read:

-

shemale's summary
- Check my what? On privilege and what we can do about it
- The privilege of politeness
- What I learned about tone
-

kagome654's reply.
-

bean_montag discusses tone argument and the burden of education
- Two-parter!

jelly_ace and

greenmask discuss how to react when called out