It's time for the black community to stop neglecting black trans women and leaving us to fend for ourselves.
When myself, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors and community activist Blossom Brown interrupted Charlamagne tha GOD's Hip-Hop and Politics panel on the MSNBC stage at Politicon this weekend, we knew it would be the catalyst for an overdue conversation within the black community. [embed]https://twitter.com/ashleempreston/status/891821597073457153[/embed]
As news of our protest spread like wildfire on social media platforms, thousands of people began stating their positions on whether they felt that Charlamagne tha GOD, and alleged comedian Lil Duval, held fault in the dangerous transphobic dialogue that took place on air last week during iHeartRadio’s show, The Breakfast Club. [embed]https://twitter.com/fatfemme/status/891367522561392642[/embed]
Of course there were apologists who immediately began defending Charlamagne and Lil Duval. Instead of addressing how Charlamagne used previous guest, transgender author Janet Mock as a prop to provoke a controversial response from Lil Duval for sensationalism and ratings, they chose to argue that Lil Duval is his own man and independent of The Breakfast Club. They didn't see fault in Charlamagne and his co-hosts laughing hysterically at his adamant assertion that if he had sex with a trans woman he'd kill her. They didn't see any harm in Charlamagne and DJ Envy sexualizing Janet Mock – a married woman – by asking Lil Duval if he found her beautiful and if he'd engage in sex with a transgender woman. They chose to defend death to trans women by making the false argument that we are sexual predators who are out to trick men into having sex with us, therefore if we’re killed, it's a justifiable response.