Today, in my daily email briefings from various media that I subscribe to, I received a short missive from Kate Woodsome of the Washington Post suggesting that I read an opinion piece by Sergio Peçanha advocating that we "hug an election denier".
He told Kate “The radicalization doesn’t really drive me nuts — it just bores me. But I try to focus on the people for who they are.” In other words he doesn't care about their politics or the effects those politics have on others as he's unwilling to face these issues directly within his own family.
This is "normalization" of the violence and hateful rhetoric coming from the right wing. I was infuriated by what I read given the Post's tendency to downplay the effects of constant anti-transgender rhetoric and legislation so I wrote a response to Kate.
And no, I don't expect any sort of responsible response from Kate or the rest of the Post staff. It's 1933 all over again and the white majority in this country thinks everything is "Fine! Just fine!"
******************************
Sergio is not one of us who are being targeted as scapegoats by these conspiracy theorists. Sergio isn’t a transgender child being threatened with denial of medical care by these conspiracy theorists. Sergio isn’t someone being threatened with arrest for simply dressing in a manner consistent with their sense of gender identity. Sergio isn’t someone who conspiracy theory inspired politicians have even said “belong in camps” or who “should be rounded up and executed”.
As a trans woman I tire of these efforts to normalize this ongoing violence against people like myself just so YOU won’t have to engage directly with people who are openly proposing genocide against a small minority.
Tell me how I’m supposed to play nice with people who daily lie about those like myself, who daily stir up hatred and anger against trans people to the extent that the transgender murder rate is 300% higher than it was six years ago.
Advocating to overlook the violent hateful effects of the politics these people scream from the town halls is advocating to let that violence continue and to turn your backs on those being persecuted.
Sergio’s piece and your admiration for it are not just disappointing; they’re both disgusting and terrifying to the transgender community as we watch ourselves being relentlessly attacked by dozens of state governments while you, the major media, openly ignores what is happening.
I wonder when you or Sergio will finally find a voice to advocate for transgender people instead of those who preach violence against them. Or maybe you’ll both be “good little Germans” who stay quiet even as the ashes from death camps settle on your neighborhood so long as the trains run on time?
Disappointed doesn’t begin to describe how I feel about you or Sergio today but I suppose you don’t care about that so long as you and the rest of the Post staff can hug a fascist.
Sincerely,
Cara Ramsey
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/18/brazil-riot-conspiracy-theories/
No comments:
Post a Comment