Introduction
I want to start this off by saying that this is not fodder for “socialization” theory. Do not skim this and start linking it as “proof” that male/female socialization exists, it does not.
I’m not here to talk about the socialization of gender, the concept that society successfully trains individuals in ways according to their Assigned Gender At Birth (AGAB) that becomes inherent regardless of their actual gender. I’m here to talk about the racialization of gender, the way it is externally forced upon racialized people while also de/ungendering us in a white supremacist, patriarchal society. I will be speaking from the experiences of a Black trans woman, but other nonwhite racialized folks have their own distinct experiences as well, as do all flavors of transness, not just transfemmes.
Also important to address for similar reasons as “socialization theory” is that basic feminist/Black feminist principles, extracted into transfeminist and Black Transfeminist ones, state that you cannot be oppressed for being part of an oppressing group. While Black men experience a gendered racism because of being Black but still being a man, they are experiencing it because they are *Black* not *because of being Men*. The difference is because *they are not the gendered oppressed class* they do not experience the additional racialized oppression of Misogynoir or Transmisogynoir. The basic racialization of their gender causes an oppressive factor, rather than being a man.
Were they not Black, they would not experience discrimination solely for being Men, otherwise the discrimination would be the same across races.
In similar ways, trans men are not experiencing an oppressive misandry because even with one existing axis of marginalization (trans), similar to the case with being Black, they would not experience an oppression for being solely Men if the trans were removed. What they are experiencing is the lack of an additional marginalization in the form of transmisogyny or transmisogynoir, rather than a marginalization unique to being a man. When this combines with race, you have one individual experiencing multiple forms of bigotry – transphobia and racism simultaneously. In particular, a form of gendered racialization.
To be clear, much like whiteness, where having a marginalization in addition to being white does not negate their whiteness under white supremacy, having a marginalization in addition to manhood under patriarchy does not negate their manhood either.
So how do we identify gendered racialization as its own thing, as a combination of, rather than “just”, racism, sexism, misogyny, or transphobia?
Gendered Racialization
In speaking to other Black trans people over the past few years, a majority across gender identities who have taken the time to interrogate how their race intersects with their gender detail a lived experience of experiencing not just an exchanged experience of societal racialization (based on “passing” as a gender). but a combined oppression.
In this combined oppression, they become Black Man, Black Woman, both, and neither to those they interact with. Where they are both the Angry/Aggressive/Strong Black Woman and the Violent/Virile Black Man concurrently.
For Black trans women in particular, we are often “positively” reduced to the ways we can support those around us or our sexual prowess/characteristics (real or rumored), while the second a nonblack person has something to gain from our suffering there’s no issue painting all of our actions as intimidating, aggressive, or forward. Of claiming a fear of violence, of harm, of impropriety that will be believed by many nonblacks no matter how we truly act or what we do.
This can manifest in being known “positively”, in the case of one Black trans woman local to me, not by a defining and consistent notable aesthetic style, but by near every white trans person aware of her responding in recognition on final realization with “oh! The one with the huge cock?” regardless of whether they’ve had any personal intimate interactions with her. Of being “positively” defined simultaneously as this by how aloof and unbothered she tends to be, how she’s “never caught up in drama” but supports those around her.
On the other hand, the way it shows up negatively can be truly horrific. For example, another local Black trans woman I know was accused of being a “homeless attempted coercive rapist” for commenting that she was going to take a nap in her car (before going back to her apartment) as she was leaving the bar because she didn’t feel sober enough to drive responsibly. You see, a white trans woman who was leaving at the same time used this to try to claim that she was trying to force her to let her come home with, and sleep with, her because “she was homeless and sleeping in her car” despite the Black transfemme having an apartment at the time and the white trans woman definitively knowing this.
“Why would she do that to another trans woman though?” you may ask. You see, besides it simply being something done to us as a tool/facet of white supremacy, the actual reasoning found? Another white trans woman had a crush on the Black trans woman, and the first white wanted to fuck the second, so she was willing to try and use these facets of gendered racialization to try to eliminate the Black trans woman from the “competition” on a whim.
These issues aren’t rare occurrences, and for many Black trans people not in majority-Black spaces, these or similar happening is a “when” not an “if” and a constant consideration we have to account for. If there’s not another, more experienced Black trans person around (such as in small queer communities or isolated friend groups) we may be taken completely unawares by something that’s just.. sickeningly common, from nonblack folks that we might have trusted to be “better” than that.
Many also often fail to account for how colorism can affect the severity of these experiences of Gendered Racialization – how someone with darker skin is more likely to be perceived or falsely described as violent, masculine, aggressive, etc. than someone with lighter skin, for example. The exact same situations, experienced by someone with darker skin, is much more likely to be a more severe incident. Meanwhile, in a more generalized sense, every nonwhite racial group experiences some level/form of Gendered Racialization to various degrees within a white supremacist society, and trans members respectively tend to be affected similarly.
Passing
But we can’t talk about gendered racialization and the “both/and” experience without talking about something else: “Passing”.
Passing is a multifaceted term that within Black communities means “someone able to pass as white”, and within trans communities tends to mean “someone who can pass as not being trans” – is almost always a question of safety rather than beauty. In both cases, it often offers an exemption from one or both types of Gendered Racialization.
A Black person able to pass as white successfully may be able to avoid being seen as other than a “white man” or a “white woman” and experience life as either; a trans person able to pass as cis successfully may be able to be seen as just a “man” or a “woman”.
A Black trans person attempting to pass has multiple axis of marginalization they may “pass” along, multiple societal factors that come in (such as how Black women are often racialized as “inherently masculine”) that may complicate the act of Passing, and the fact that at any given time they may “pass” as one thing but not another, leaving them at risk for more—almost randomized in any given interaction—harm.
The risks and work involved in what is itself a privilege to access (to avoid or lessen even in part or temporarily the horrors and harms inflicted by racism and transphobia) that many cannot come close to utilizing; Relatedly, people who can Pass in any context are often seen as effortless and more desirable to those around them due to their perceived proximity of eurocentric beauty standards. In reality, Passing is more like a professional ballerina en poine on stage—constant struggle behind the scenes translated into a performance where what you’re seeing is the “finished product”. When the result of the show is your own safety, presenting a flawless performance is integral.
But what of those “left behind” by passing in each context? People for whom Passing along a given axis is unattainable for any number of reasons?
The same old racism, sexism, transphobia, and gendered racialization, but potentially with another oppressor.
Because part of Passing is that it is the politics of Assimilation. That by sacrificing part of what we are, whether temporarily or permanently, we can become safe. Sometimes someone Passing will use it as an opportunity to act as a race/class/gender traitor in order to act positively on behalf of the group they are pretending not to be, but more often they’ll be too paralyzed by fear or worry they’ll be “outed” in the moment.
Passing for safety is not inherently bad, but the sacrifices of others that are often made along with it are. If you are able and willing to “pass”, you must make sure to protect your kin in the process rather than sacrificing them for your own safety.
Conclusion
So then what does it mean when we find the intersection of gendered racialization and “passing”?
That some can escape or mitigate aspects of it, but for the majority affected by the two primary sides of gendered racialization, passing isn’t even an option worth considering (or in solely trans contexts, may be seen as so far off in transition as to not be relevant).
The majority will still experience the horrific oppressions of racism, transmisogyny, and transmisogynoir. 57% of trans people of color will still make below $10k per year, over half of trans people of color have been physically or sexually assaulted with trans women of color reaching almost 70% assaulted, over half of trans people of color are unemployed, and 28% of Black trans people are actively homeless while 3/4 are experiencing financial hardship, according to a 2015 study.
This piece doesn’t contain solutions or “how to solve this” because frankly? I have no fucking clue. But I would like to hear something from those non-white readers who feel called to write: What does gendered racialization look like in your communities, from your point of views? I can speak on Black experiences, but I also encourage other Black voices to speak up and be known, for Indigenous folks and other people of color to speak on their experiences as well. We deserve to have more outlooks than just the omnipresent whites.
How does gendered racialization present in your community?