Why is Being Black, Transgender, And Disabled A Threat?
My existence IS a form of resistance.
I want to start off by saying that I am not a Black person. I am not a Black, Transgender person. Therefore, I will never be able to truly understand the degree to which a Black, Trans, and Disabled — or any of these identities individually — are seen as a threat to society, nor the challenges that BI&POC face.
I can relate to Aaron Philip being physically disabled. Although, most of the time I am able to hide my disability and limit my use of mobility tools. The disabled identity creates challenges for my presence and makes people uncomfortable.
I have had to create a mental homeplace of my own, in order to escape some of the restrictions and inaccessible forces that are placed on my being in certain spaces.
bell hooks coined the term “homeplace,” which is either a literal and physical, or emotional and mental place of refuge for Black people to recover and resist from our heteronormative and colonialist society.
But what about those who do not have a place, a homeplace, to call their own? This is where we need to expand the concept of a homeplace, and include one’s body as a place of resistance.
One’s mind and body, can operate as a homeplace and place to continuously display one’s resistance. An individual’s body can also function as an expression of that person’s identity and as a means of visually dismantling whiteness that is placed on BI&POC.
As bell hooks describes homeplace, it is a place for Black women and is created by Black women. However, a homeplace is much larger than the context that bell hooks describes it in. While trying to take the concepts of homeplace and resistance farther than existing in a literal home, I decided to look at someone who, by means of being Black, transgender and also disabled, is resisting heteronormative means and whiteness placed on her by society. Phillip’s body and existence is a form of resistance, and can perhaps be seen as a ‘homeplace’ in the hooksian sense. The way Phillip has created a space for rethinking feminist visions of what might encompass the Black liberation struggle, connects to hooks’ desire to counter oppression in a place where white subjugation is not allowed to dominate Black women.
In “Homeplace: A Site Of Resistance”, hooks states that “Together, Black women can renew our commitment to Black liberation struggle, sharing insights and awareness, sharing feminist thinking and feminist vision, building solidarity”.
I see this quote as a direct connection to continuing to create homeplaces where Black women can resume building each other up and be able to create the mindset that lets them resist oppression that takes place outside of their homeplace. Black women, as hooks makes clear in her literature, have paved the way for other Black women and trans women, such as Aaron Phillip, to live their lives in their bodies however an individual chooses to present their body, and have opportunities such as modeling for a major agency. Black women have made this possible for other Black folks. This quote also gives a more refined definition of what hooks sees as a homeplace, where the focus of having this space is to confront the issues of dehumanization of Black folks, resist these notions of dehumanizing their existence, and recharge to make sure there is enough of themselves to not only care for themselves and their bodies, but their families as well. Black women have continuously been underestimated in their roles in Black liberation struggles, as well as the creation and maintaining of the homeplace, but it is because of Black women that people like Aaron Phillip are able to exist in places that had previously denied her right to exist there.
The concept of homeplace does not end with bell hooks; in fact, this is only just the beginning. Black people and people of color will continue to struggle to exist equally in society, and need to carve out places that not only allow them to exist, but to thrive. Because of this continual need, the homeplace should be transportable for those who consistently encounter resistance to their existence and presence. It is of the utmost importance for BI&POC to have a mental and/or physical space to enter that cannot be permeated by their oppressor(s).
Phillip stated “I enter the fashion world with intentions of making the industry more diverse, inclusive, and accessible. I have never seen a physically disabled supermodel or a Black transfeminine model heralded, celebrated, or even working in the way other models are — and I hope to change that” (Phillip, 2018). Due to the lack of representation in fashion, Phillip notes that this has deeply affected her and has created the desire for her to carve her own space in a community where someone like her has never been represented. This lack of representation has lit a fire in Phillip to see more people like her, in a space where whiteness deems her to be the minority. Phillip is creating space for an entire group of people that society has intentionally underrepresented and tried to push aside.
A homeplace does not have to be a physical space, especially as homelessness continues to rise. However, healing and resistance cannot occur in a place where someone is continuing to be harmed, hence the need for a safe homeplace. Homeplace can be music, how one chooses to accessorize themselves or present themselves to the world, such as the clothes they wear, the jobs they have, and gender expression. At the time that hooks wrote her piece, Homeplace: A Site Of Resistance, Black women were extremely devalued and barely had enough energy to conserve for their own families; now we have people inhabiting spaces that were previously forbidden or off-limits to them. While one can never escape from physically being in their body, they can choose to not let their mind stay in a place of complacency, and visual expression is another way to show resistance.
We live in a society that is racist, homophobic and anti-LGBTQ, and is not created to support people with disabilities. There are restrictions put on people’s existence, which is extremely problematic especially for those who do not have a place to step away from “that place of Otherness’’ (hooks, 387). Then there are others, who do have that place to take a stance, unrestricted from society, and step away from decolonization. If one does not have the opportunity to do this, they cannot gather with individuals who are like minded in their goals, and have the desire to create a homeplace outside of the traditional sense — four walls and a separated space.
People seem to forget that bell hooks was only born in 1952, and that her works remain ever present in Black liberation struggles that BI&POC face today. These concepts are entirely relevant to 2021, although perhaps in a different way than hooks initially intended. There needs to be space created to tell the stories and lived experiences of BI&POC, and those with other oppressed identities, about how to recreate the world in a way that is accessible to not just those with privilege. The space and ability to step away from the world is a right that everyone should be granted.
hooks, bell. 1990. Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. pp. 41–49. South End Press.
