by Ganesha Gold Buffalo (Her/she)
Community Outreach Coordinator, Core Member of WA-BTTF

As our Trans community reels from another wave of COVID, increasing barriers to accessing community, the very recent passing of HB25 among other extremely transphobic bills passed slyly under the chaos of the pandemic and the racial justice movement, and the recent murders of our Black Trans sisters Royal Poetical Starz, Kiér Laprí Kartier, Briana Hamilton, D'isaya Dior Monaee Smith, Angel Naira, Danyale Thompson, Marquiisha Lawrence, Taya Ashton, Shia Vanderpump, Nikki David, Remy Fennell, Thomas Hardin, Pooh Johnson, Tierramarie Lewis, Jaida Paterson, Miss CoCo, Tiara Banks, Aidelen Evans, Diamond Kyree Sanders, Keri Washington, Danika “Danny” Henson, Tiffany Thomas, Dominique Lucious, Serenity Hollis, Fitty Bandz, Dominique Jackson, Tyianna Alexander, Natalia Smut, Bianca “Muffin” Bankz, Alexus “Kimmy Icon” Braxton, and Black Trans brothers Mel Groves, and EJ Boykin aka Novaa Watson, the very last thing we needed was another public onslaught. But that is exactly what we got with Dave Chappelle’s new Netflix comedy special, which is currently drawing much-deserved criticism for its blatant transmisogynoir and homophobia from all levels of the entertainment industry, LGBTQIA2S+ spheres, and even from within corporate Netflix itself.

However, some were more defensive of Chappelle. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, the mayor of D.C., and even the sisters of the trans woman mentioned in the comedy, Daphne Dorman (who died tragically in 2019), rushed to his defense. With Sarandos going as far as to say that his team at Netflix has “a strong belief that content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.” Let’s talk about why that’s inherently wrong. Platforms carry power. Multi-million dollar platforms, such as the one Netflix has provided for Chappelle multiple times now, carry a lot of power and influence. Power and influence have been abused more often than used responsibly throughout colonial history, regardless of intention, or falling under the scope of entertainment.

And it didn’t stop there – Dave and his cohorts were tapped for an A New Year’s Eve comedy show immediately following the backlash (that’s taking place right here in Seattle at Amazon’s Climate Pledge Arena) as well as a main stage spot at Netflix’s “Netflix Is A Joke” comedy festival happening this coming Spring in Los Angeles. Both of these entertainment giants loudly state with their actions that they are opting out of standing against transphobia, homophobia, queerphobia, and transmisogynoir in place of profit. While not even moderately surprising to the Black Trans community, this marks a tipping point in the perpetuation of our continued struggle via hypercapitalist oppression and we demand accountability on the part of these major entertainment platforms that represent countless LGBTQIA2S+ peoples just within their employment base alone. Content creators included. Not to mention their many investments into community spaces that rely on their advocacy.

Consider that in these specials, Chapelle plays no one but himself. He isn’t an actor or puppet in someone else’s film narrative. He’s directing, writing, and performing all of his own content. Particularly during such a pivotal and vulnerable time within modern history, these words carry a Trumpian weight that can, will, and have encouraged vitriol and violence against the broader Trans community. Given his positioning and fame within the Black community, this situation takes an even more dire turn.

Let us not forget that this is an issue of white supremacist patriarchal colonialism: the source of all systems of oppression underlying in this discourse between Chapelle and the LGBTQIA2S+ community. The reason transmisogynoir, for instance, is even rampant in the Black community is entirely due to colonial systems of control. White European settler colonizers wanted to exert control over Black and Indigenous peoples in as many ways as possible after realizing they couldn’t simply be wiped out, no matter how invasive or insidious. So, the minds of these original peoples were far from the final frontier of colonial conquest. At some point, it became clear to the colonizers that people are more easily controlled when they aren’t allowed a naturally expansive identity and sense of self as it relates to their native community, and forced into a chasm of identity, or binary.

What’s more is that precolonially, Trans and Gender Diverse individuals were regarded as sacred and closest to Spirit or God, and honored with major leadership roles in many tribal nations. So by taking this away, colonizers were also removing a connection to peer leadership, elderdom, creation, and spirituality amongst said peoples in such a way that made them blank slates prime for complete assimilation. This level of complex trauma spans generations unhealed to the point it becomes normalized, and this is exactly what we’re dealing with today. This is also why white critique will always fail to touch on the weight of how transphobia and transmisogynoir remain so pervasive in Black and Indigenous communities, and always subsequently veer into antiblackness with their arguments. Therefore, these conversations and discourses should belong to those respective communities alone outside of exercises on accountability.

The leadership council of Lavender Rights Project, WA Black Trans Task Force, unequivocally condemns these transphobic and homophobic attacks against the broader LGBTQIA2S+ community. We rise in support of the Trans and Queer lives encircling this circumstance, as well as the lives impacted outside of those immediate affected spaces. And we hope that these words strengthen the voices that have already risen in combat of the hatred and ignorance that has been emboldened by the statements in the aforementioned streaming special. This is far more than just distasteful entertainment to place a down-vote on; it is an affront to all of the work our communities have done collectively against the many fires of systemic oppression. Intentionally divisive content such as this labeled deceptively as “entertainment” and “comedy” on globalized platforms leave more than just a bad taste and an offense. They set our communities back years, leaving a rift in representation and intersectionality that reflects onto our very psyches. Shame on you, Dave Chappelle; You and all of your proponents.