slurs
You might not want to harm trans people, but that's the thing about casual transphobia; It doesn't need to have true hate behind it to be real and harmful.
The shirt read, "n***a we made it."
I tried it once. To say it in a different way, to say it in a different context than the one I had come to know it in."Faggot." I have to admit I admired the way some of my gay friends owned the word, throwing it around like a casual term of endearment.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
WHAT'S HAPPENING
As the civil rights movement has taught us, words hurt and they reinforce old prejudices. The time has come for our public officials to serve as shining examples of acceptance and tolerance. The time to end all slurs, against all groups, is now.
I must be the most serene dude on the planet, because I swear to you that I have never hurled a racial invective at someone. No, not even when I was a kid. And no, not even when I was drunk. I'm not boasting, because it would be pretty sad if I wanted kudos just for avoiding hateful insults. To me, that should be basic behavior.
Over the years, I've heard a lot of explanations from people who want to defend the use of this word beginning with 'gringos don't understand -- it's cultural.'
We must find a way to understand the damage we do. We can't continue to throw around words that we don't find personally offensive and wash our hands of the harm they cause to someone else. If we do anything less than put an end to the use of anti-trans* slurs, then we are just bullies.
