In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Category: Class

Sanesha Stewart is dead and I have only tears and frustration for her

A man named Steve McMillian apparently stabbed Sanesha Stewart to death on Saturday morning. Who was she? She lived in the Bronx. She was tall and femme and well-liked by her neighbors. She was a client at the law project where I volunteer, but I never met her myself. Some of my colleagues helped her get her name legally changed more than a year ago. None of the above mattered at all to the news media, which handled this tragedy with the appropriate combination of sensitivity, respect for the victim, and a very cold eye for the man who the police dragged from her apartment, covered in her blood.

Oh no… wait one second and back up. There was no respect and no cold eye, none at all. I must be imagining some completely different universe where young trans women of color aren’t automatically treated like human trash. Where we all live, business as usual is to make a lot of comments about what the murder victim dressed like and looked like, reveal what her name was before she changed it, automatically assume she’s getting paid for sex, and to make excuses for the alleged killer.

And please note: “Cops: Ex-con slays Bronx transsexual ‘hooker'” is not the original headline of this NY Daily News article. The original one was “Fooled john stabbed Bronx tranny,” until pressure from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation got them to change it. They are still suggesting that people take action by writing to the editors–follow that link for more details.

The Daily News also published a follow-up story in which Sanesha’s downstairs neighbor insists that she wasn’t getting paid for sex; the Daily News doesn’t offer any proof for their earlier assertion that Sanesha Stewart was a “hooker,” other than “police sources.” And as many trans people in New York City will tell you, the NYPD assumes that almost any young, Black or Latina trans woman walking around on the street, or going into an apartment building with a guy, is getting paid for sex work. Profiling is constant; women have been arrested around here simply for having a gathering in someone’s apartment, apparently it’s too suspicious. I mean why would any normal person want to hang out with one of THEM, right?

I don’t know if Sanesha Stewart was doing sex work or not, and I don’t think it really matters, other than the fact that the usual assumptions are being made. I don’t know what else to say. This kind of thing always leaves me at a loss for words, there’s not much to do but sit, and cry, and wonder how long it will be until the next murder. Until the next young, poor or working class, Black or Latina trans woman is murdered just for being trans, and then mocked by so-called journalists before her body cools.

Worst of all is the fact that even the newer article ends with a hint of what will undoubtedly be part of the next chapter of this story: the “tranny panic” defense.

Ramel C., 37, said McMillan had a girlfriend. He said his life-long friend must have been shocked to discover he was with a man.

“I’m not saying that’s a reason to kill anyone,” he said. “But I’m sure he was in some type of turmoil or shock.”

(Right, because no guy with a girlfriend has ever slept with or dated a trans woman.)

Read this, and then go look at some of the comments on those stories and the other news sources that megan_julca rounded up. The “trans panic” defense was used in the trials following the murder of Gwen Araujo, and those murderers got reduced sentences. We still live in a place and time where people think it’s “perfectly understandable” that someone would flip out and want to kill a trans woman just because they find out she’s trans. And those are the people who claim not to condone violent criminal reactions! Others are happy to step right up and say (at least on the anonymous Internet) that they’d react the same way and do the same thing. Trans people take the blame; trans people should be the ones walking around with prominent badges of shame, so all the “normal” people don’t make the wrong assumption. The question nobody ever seems to ask is, why would you automatically assume that the person you’re on a date with isn’t trans?

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This is your brain. This is your brain on Ayn Rand. Any questions?

Thought the whining of Aravosis was bad? Check out Megan McArdle on the economic stimulus package, and why she agrees with the GOP that food stamps shouldn’t be included:

1) The poor don’t need more food. Obesity is a problem for the poor in America; except for people who are too screwed up to get food stamps (because they don’t have an address), food insufficiency is not.

2) Food stamps only imperfectly translate into increased cash income, meaning that the poor will spend . . . more money on food…

5) The economy doesn’t need a food sector more distorted by daft government programs than it already is. If you want to give money to the poor, give it to them. Even if they spend it all on drugs, it will hardly be much worse than spending it all on increasing their already astronomical obesity rates.

See, if we give poor people food stamps, they’ll just buy food with them! And they’re already fatty fat fat! But if we give them money, they’ll just buy drugs. Which is better, because at least the drugs won’t make them fat.

Remember, kids: she gets paid for these fine opinions. Welfare for poor people is bad, but wingnut welfare? A-OK!

H/T: teratologist, who rightly notes that it’s getting really hard for the Onion to keep up.

GOP’s Ideology over Sound Economics

It’s no big secret that Republicans seem to take great pleasure out of screwing poor people in this country. They usually manage to justify it economically, arguing something along the lines of “personal responsibility” and saying that helping the poor will be an economic burden on everyone else. The Republican ideal is, supposedly, a strong economy. It’s interesting, then, to be in a situation where a market crisis threatens everyone’s financial security, and the most effective provisions in the stimulus package give some aid to lower-income people — and Republicans oppose those provisions because aiding low-income people would be contrary to GOP values:

Changes reportedly made last night in the stimulus package would reduce its effectiveness as stimulus. Although the package includes a reasonably designed tax rebate, the two most targeted and economically effective measures under consideration — a temporary extension of unemployment benefits and a temporary boost in food stamp benefits — were zeroed out, apparently at the insistence of House Republican leaders.

The two respected institutions that have rated stimulus options in recent days — the Congressional Budget Office and Moody’s Economy.com — both give their two highest ratings for effectiveness as stimulus to the two measures that were dropped.

One point of contention, it seems, is that House Republicans want to focus on business tax cuts and tax rebate checks. But tax rebate checks wouldn’t be sent out until June, and business tax cuts won’t do a whole lot of good if consumers have significantly less spending power. Food stamps and unemployment insurance, on the other hand, would inject greater consumer spending power into the economy now, and we could see improvement in a month or two. Instead, the plan is to provide $50 billion dollars in business tax cuts, while excluding unemployment insurance and food stamps.

But it’s not just a matter of different values; it’s an issue of cold, hard cash and economic gain:

Economy.com found that for each dollar spent on extended UI benefits, $1.64 in increased economic activity would be generated. For each dollar in increased food stamp benefits, $1.73 in new economic activity would be generated. No other options rated as high.

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New Orleans police enforce the “no poor folk in NOLA” rule

hat tip, Beautiful Also Are The Souls of My Black Sisters:7c964661-ca8a-4514-80c5-7aabb56def6b_ms1.jpeg
Image description: several people surround a woman who is being tended to on the ground by two women and a man. The woman on the ground has her mouth open and appears to be crying out. There are various people running past and milling about–at least one appears to be holding a camera–media perhaps? In the background are metal police barricades and more people behind the barricade. (AP Photo/Cheryl Gerber)
New Orleans police officers subdue protesters at the New Orleans City Council meeting where the council is expected to vote for the demolition of housing projects in the city of New Orleans, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007.stop-the-demolitions.jpg
Image description: a large white cloth banner is draped over a metal police barricade. On the banner are the words STOP the DEMOLITIONS. HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT. Several men, who are most certainly protesters, stand behind the barricade. In the background are New Orleans city buildings.

Police used chemical spray and stun guns Thursday as dozens of protesters seeking to halt the demolition of 4,500 public housing units tried to force their way through an iron gate at City Hall.

One woman was sprayed with chemicals and dragged from the gates. She was taken away on a stretcher by emergency officials. Before that, the woman was seen pouring water from a bottle into her eyes and weeping.

Another woman said she was stunned by officers, and still had what appeared to be a Taser wire hanging from her shirt.

pepper-sprayed.jpg

Image description: a middle aged woman wearing a dark blue jacket with white stripes is lying on the grass. She appears to be weeping and in great distress. A man is behind her supporting her head, while a woman kneels in front of her with what appears to be gauze. This woman has been pepper sprayed, apparently directly in her eyes, and the man and woman with her are very probably rescue workers.

From the BBC:

New Orleans City Council has voted to demolish 4,500 public housing units despite violent protests against the development project earlier on Monday.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to replace the units, which were damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with new mixed-income housing.

But critics say the development will restrict the stock of cheap housing.

Earlier, police used pepper spray and stun guns on the protesters when they tried to get into the council chamber.

Several people were treated for the effects of the pepper spray. It is not known if any of the protesters were arrested.

Following hours of debate and clashes outside the meeting, New Orleans City Council voted in favour of the government’s plan to replace the decades-old structures damaged by Katrina to be demolished.

What the fuck was the City Council thinking? Money talks, folks. For some, money is the only thing they listen to. Shame, shame, shame.

Police in action:
police.jpg
Image description:Several cops in blue uniforms stand behind the iron gate that was used to lock protesters out of the City Council meeting. The third cop from the left is holding a can of pepper spray and spraying it out toward the crowd of protesters.

Ok, these are the poor black, brown, and white dispossessed residents of New Orleans fighting for their lives. Their lives. And a hearty “fuck you” and relegation to moderation to anybody who tries to justify what the Rich Men are doing to poor people down there.

While reading about the housing protests over the last couple of weeks, I keep thinking of something brownfemipower said in comments over at her place:

This might be a good conversation to have, not a lot of people recognize that there’s a difference between protesting and civil disobedience. Or that the u.s. hasn’t seen true civil disobedience since the 60’s and 70’s with the various power movements and the queer movement. Or the environmental movement that shut down nuclear facilities. I was going to talk about how we’re seeing the beginnings of some great movement making with youths, about how they shut down citibank recently, and about how the zapatistas shut down major freeways, and how the immolokee workers have won unprecedented victories through civil disobedience and cultural movement making—I was going to talk about all sorts of things, because I thought–well, let’s see if we can find a way to bring these worlds together.

This is important, because there is a cynical strain of thought out there that all that protesting and milling about and getting arrested is just a waste of time. Tell that to the woman with pepper spray in her eyes. Tell that to the cops. Tell that to the City Council, which was so rocked and intimidated by the power of angry people with a righteous cause that they had to hide behind an iron fence and police with weapons.

This is getting coverage all over the place, so I’ll just provide some links and let them tell the rest of the story:
For more great photo coverage
Is This What Democracy Looks Like?
Protesters clash with police over New Orleans demolitions
Common Ground Collective has been a great source for on the spot coverage
New Orleans Indy Media
The Redstar Perspective

*crossposted at Super Babymama

Update and mobilization statement from Coalition To Stop Demolitions

photo_stopdemolitions_banner_cropped.png
Image description: a large white cloth banner with the words STOP THE DEMOLITIONS. The image is close cropped but several hands are visible holding the banner.

A statement from the Coalition to Stop Demolitions:

The Coalition to Stop the Demolitions would like to thank all allies and supporters throughout the United States and the world who came and stood with us in New Orleans or took action on the streets your city, or who called, emailed, or faxed the New Orleans City Council, Mayor Ray Nagin, Senator Vitter, the Senate Banking Committee members and other public officials. Your support played a pivotal role in helping us attain the victories we accomplished last week in halting the demolition of three of the four major public housing locations in New Orleans.

However, the fight is far from over and we still need your help. Despite our victories in both State and Federal Courts last Friday, we recognize that it is quite possible that we might lose the City Council vote on Thursday, December 20th by a decision of four to three (or perhaps even five to two). We are fairly certain that at least three of the white City Council members are going vote against us, including Jacquelyn Clarkson, Stacy Head, and Shelley Midura. There is a possibility that Arnie Fielkow, the current Council President, might vote in favor or abstain in order to not lose favor with a sector of the Black electorate whom he will need to fulfill his Mayoral aspirations. As for those who may stand with us, there are likely only two members who are solid. These are James Carter and Cynthia Willard-Lewis. The third Black Council member, Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, is definitely a critical swing vote. We need to put pressure on each and every one of these City Council members between now and the 20th (please stress outreach to Internally Displaced Persons in your area and encourage them to call as a priority).

In addition, the Federal lawsuit filed on behalf of the residents of the St. Bernard was transferred from Washington, D.C. to the US District Court – Eastern District of Louisiana. Based on his past behavior, we do not expect this judge will do anything to stop the demolitions.

What this means is that by Friday, December 21st we may realistically be engaging in our second wave of mass non-violent civil disobedience action. Should this be the case, we are going to need all of our allies and supporters everywhere to be ready yet again to take decisive action to stop these inhumane demolition orders.

Things we foresee as being critical this week:

1. We need to blitz the City Council of New Orleans and demand
1. That they vote NO to the demolitions, and
2. That they hold a public hearing on the demolitions in the evening so that more working class people can participate. Information on how to contact the City Council is provided below.
2. We need as many people who can come to
1. Pack City Council on Thursday, December 20th,
2. Be prepared to engage in non-violent civil disobedience in line with the residents council principles (read below) and the coalitions pledge of resistance statement. To engage in this initiative you must register with the coalition at action@peopleshurricane.org.
3. We would also like to encourage Black and other oppressed nationality organizers to come down and help us with outreach, base building, and coalition building work over the course of the next several weeks.
3. We need to continue pressuring Senator David Vitter with calls, faxes, and emails demanding that he support Senate Bill 1668 and allow the bill to move from the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee to the Senate for a vote.
4. We need to pressure Senator Mary Landrieu to demand that the Federal government via President George W. Bush and the Justice Department suspend the demolitions until the Federal investigation of Alphonso Jackson is complete.
5. We need to seize these next three days to reframe the struggle to stop the demolition based on the demands of the Coalition (see below). We need everyone to
1. Write letters to the editor for your local news outlets,
2. Blitz the major newsprint, TV, and cable media networks and demand that they cover the issue, and
3. To write articles on the issue based on the Coalitions demands and post them to as many listserves, blogs, and websites as you possibly can.

Finally, we need some resources to carry out this work. Some of the things we need resources for include:

1. The “Stop Da Demolitions” Mixtape made by Sess 4 – 5, Nuthinbutfire Records, and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement for the Coalition the Stop the Demolition. We need $1,400 to produce and print 2,000 CD’s for youth outreach and education.
2. We also need resources to help with transportation, food, and accommodations for both residents and volunteers.
3. We need resources the cover the Coalitions cell phone expense.
4. We need resources to cover printings (flyers and posters).
5. Finally, we need resources materials to produce banners and other mobilization props.

Donations can be made out to the Mississippi Disaster Relief Coalition (MDRC) and mailed to P.O. Box 31762 Jackson, MS 39286. Please indicate on your donation “Coalition to Stop Demolitions”. All donations are tax-deductible.

Our Demands

1. City Council needs to vote NO on demolition. The Council meeting should be moved to an evening time to accommodate people’s schedules and allow a full public hearing on demolition before taking a vote.
2. The mayor needs to meet with the faith leaders who have requested a meeting with him about the housing crisis in the city
3. No Demolitions – reopen the existing units and rebuild dignified housing at former public housing sights.
4. Guaranteed one-to-one replacement for all public housing residents.
5. All available public housing units should be made available for the homeless and those likely to face homelessness from the pending loss of rent vouchers and trailer recalls.
6. The Federal government needs to suspend demolition until the investigation of Alphonso Jackson and the contraction process is completed.
7. Rent Control to provide deeply affordable housing so that all will be able to return to the city.
8. Stop the privatization and gentrification of the City.

Resident Principles

1. All Actions should be non-violent.
2. There should be no weapons or drugs at any actions, and no alcohol or drug or weapon possession at any action.
3. No destruction or defacement of resident property.
4. No coalition meetings without resident knowledge and input.
5. No media without residents or resident knowledge.
6. Focus on defending public housing and affordable housing in the city for all.

City Council Contact Information

* Arnie Fielkow 504.658.1060 afielkow@cityofno.com
* Jacquelyn Clarkson 504.658.1070 jbclarkson@cityofno.com
* Stacy Head 504.658.1020 shead@cityofno.com
* Shelly Midura 504.658.1010 smidura@cityofno.com
* James Carter 504.658.1030 jcarter@cityofno.com
* Cynthia Hedge-Morrell 504.658.1040 chmorrell@cityofno.com
* Cynthia Willard-Lewis 504.658.1050 cwlewis@cityofno.com

In Unity and Struggle,
Kali

From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

Whaddaya gonna do about it?

I would be seriously remiss if I didn’t highlight Meowser’s terrific post, at Shakesville and cross-posted at Fat Fu, in response to this comment by Barack Obama:

“If we could go back to the obesity rates of 1980 we could save the Medicare system a trillion dollars.”—Barack Obama during Democratic Presidential Debate, 12/13/07

Says Meowser:

But we have an election coming up next year, and strictly from a fat perspective, I worry about who is going to replace him. When I found out Barack Obama (much like Hillary Clinton, who has made similar remarks in the past) wanted to disappear me solely because of my weight in order to save the government money, I had to ask: Just how far are they willing to go to make that a reality?

No, really, I want to know. I’m willing to sacrifice a lot in order to make life better for poor people, gays, Muslims, waterboarding victims, and a whole lot of other folks who have been personally kicked in the rear a lot more severely than I have by the current administration. I’m willing to sacrifice a lot for a cleaner environment, safer food, no war, no wiretapping or torturing just because you don’t like someone’s mustache, and more affordable housing for all. Which is why I’m a Democrat. They may not be perfect, but at least they make a pass at giving a damn about those issues.

But I still think I have a right to know just how much agency they are willing to remove from people—and especially fatasses like myself—in the name of “health care cost containment.” You’d think the Democrats would be all about personal agency and individual freedom. They damn well ought to be. But I’m afraid that when it comes to nosing around in people’s body autonomy, they’re just as guilty as the people they want to replace; they just want to nose around in a different part of our bodies, that’s all.

Getting the vapors about health care costs and blaming the fatties for driving up the cost of health care seems to be the very latest fashion. And here’s the thing: I haven’t seen one reliable study that shows that fat people, over a lifetime, actually have higher healthcare costs than other people.

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Why demolishing public housing cuts to the bone

Have any of you all ever been evicted? Ever lost a home for any reason? Even if it’s an old house in the middle of the city that could probably use a lot of time and money that you don’t have, it’s still home.

I spent a couple of years on my old blog talking and posting pictures of my old house and my old neighborhood in Milwaukee. People didn’t understand why I stayed–people thought that it must be depressing to be so poor and living in such a poor area. Well fuck yeah, there were plenty of depressing times, but it wasn’t the fault of my neighbors or my house.

People who don’t live in communities don’t quite get how communities work. Communities aren’t all about the suburban folks having a cocktail party (or whatever it is y’all suburban folks do), or some tv drama about desperate white women behind picket fences. I learned all I needed to know about how a community succeeds by living, tumbled down and broke, right alongside people who were careful of me, then accepting of me, and then my friends. Community meant that Ashanti could go to the corner store and the couple who ran the store, who had lived in a flat above that store for 30 years, knew her name and her favorite candy. Community meant that when Kat was wild and running the streets, the prostitutes working the avenue would look out for her and make sure she got home safe. Community meant that if Yolanda next door was cooking rice and beans or making sandwiches or a pitcher of koolaid, she shared with my kids. It meant that when my electricity got cut off I knew I could run an extension cord between my house and Eddie’s house so that I could at least have a lamp on and watch television.

Here’s community: one morning Yolanda came running to my house to let me know that the city tow truck was outside getting ready to tow my car for unpaid tickets. I wasn’t dressed yet so I threw her my car keys and she ran out to the street, unlocked the car door, and jumped inside. Cuz see, the tow truck couldn’t tow my car as long as there was somebody in there. And by the time I was dressed and outside Yolanda had argued so strenuously with the tow truck driver that he agreed to leave without my car.

This is poor people looking out for each other. I was often the only one on the block with my phone turned on, so I was the person who made and accepted phone calls for my neighbors. If I heard Mattie and her boyfriend’s argument starting to get out of hand, I could stick my head out the window and let her know I’d call 911 if she needed me to. Often that was enough to get the boyfriend to cool it.

This is a community of poor people who struggle and look out for each other. Lot of times folks don’t understand exactly how that works. You watch the news and you think people in inner cities are too busy shooting guns and smoking crack to actually have friends and family that they love. You think poor means stratified, disconnected, a world of distrust and violence. If you think it’s that simple then you’re wrong.

When my disability got bad enough that for a couple of years I rarely left my house, my neighbors would stop by on their way to the store to see if I needed anything. When I got my scooter and became mobile again, people I hadn’t seen in years cried and kissed me on the cheek and hugged me because they were so pleased for me.

Poor people, y’all. Poor brown and black people living in a city that is famous for violence and racial segregation.

And I have a good friend who grew up in the projects in Chicago, the famous Harold Ickes (the “Ickes) projects, who remembers her childhood with great fondness. Her grandma still lives there to this day. And when the Chicago Housing Authority made plans to demolish the Chicago projects, there was enormous outcry from the residents, even as the wealthy salivated at the prospect of getting their paws on all that prime real estate. I went to protests and community actions trying to keep the projects from being torn down. And what happened to the residents of the projects that were demolished? Gone to the suburbs, cut off from each other, torn apart. Lost to the communities that had sustained them.

Talk about ghettos and slums and the inner city all you want. Let the media lie to you and tell you that poor people and people of color can’t work together, can’t create vibrant life together. Live in ignorance. But I tell you, if all that is true, then why are the scattered, displaced residents of New Orleans so desperate to come home? Why the outcry, the grief, at the loss of the New Orleans public housing?

This is why: because people who are poor need each other. We need each other because we know exactly how it feels to be down to your last $10 and it’s only the middle of the month. We need each other because we speak each other’s language. We need to be around people like us so that we maintain our humanity and our hope.

And poor people have a right to housing. Housing is a human right, like enough food and water and safety from violence. And if the bad men who want to finish the job of destroying New Orleans succeed in tearing it down and rebuilding it in their own image, there is nothing to stop them from doing the same thing in any poor neighborhood in the country.

Housing is a right. I deserve it, and so do you. And so do the people of New Orleans.