thedynamicsofprejudice

[thedynamicsofprejudice]

Nazis Outside of Drag Shows in Ohio

Just about a week ago, a group of white supremacists were filmed waiting outside a drag show brunch in Ohio. Land Grant Brewing Co. hosted a drag show brunch to gain proceeds for LGBT+ youth recently affected by anti-LGBT laws being passed across the states, where white supremacists waited outside chanting over the performances. The white supremacists were seen wearing red shirts and black ski masks and gloves while carrying black flags with swatstikas. 

This is not the only case of recent white supremacists gathering in protests. One of the most infamous recent encounters was the Charlottesville 2017 incident that became known as the “Unite the Right” protest. However, many people think this type of thing is a thing of the past, so why is it happening now, especially in huge waves? One of the largest reasons is due to recent laws against LGBT+ rights and racist comments made by politicians, especially during and after the era of Donald Trump. After his presidency, there has been a huge wave of anti-LGBT laws due to his homophobic and transphobic rhetoric. During his presidency, he ran with an openly-homophobic vice president (Mike Pence) and appointed homophobic/transphobic supreme court justices like Amy Cohen Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. He also implemented various anti-trans laws, leading up to the raising rates of transphobia in the recent years. When it comes to the racist aspect, lots of anti-immigrant laws and cracking down on building walls were also implemented during his presidency, creating one of the largest waves of xenophobia and Hispanic/Latinx hate recorded in the country. In regions where Trump had more votes during the election, rates of hate crimes spiked in those areas. Not only that, but anti-Asian hate also largely increased after Trump blamed the COVID-19 on China, including anti-Asian hate crimes committed. So, why does it matter? Well, as anti-trans and homophobic laws increase and racial discrimination is further preached by politicians, these white supremacists marches will only increase, and these will not only affect the marginalized groups experiencing the hate, the violence encouraged and committed will affect all the communities involved. That is why it is important to speak out against hateful politicians and harmful hate groups in any way possible, whether it’s voting for more supportive politicians or protesting against hateful bills and laws. 

Citations: 

Filby, Max. “Nazis protest at Land-Grant drag brunch: Here’s what you need to know now”. May 2023. The Columbus Dispatch. https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2023/05/01/heres-what-we-know-about-the-nazis-protesting-a-columbus-drag-brunch/70169948007/ 

Williamson, Vanessa. “Trump and racism: what do the data say?” August 2019. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2019/08/14/trump-and-racism-what-do-the-data-say/ 

Inwood, Joshua. “White supremacy, white counter-revolutionary politics, and the rise of Donald Trump”. 2019. Pennsylvania State University. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2399654418789949 

[thedynamicsofprejudice]

DeSantis vs. Disney: The Funniest Feud in History

There has been a lot of news recently with both DeSantis and Disney World in the same sentence, whether it be Disney critiquing the governor for his Don’t Say Gay bill or DeSantis threatening to build a prison near the theme park. However, how did this whole beef even start? Why do they hate each other so much? Why is a governor of Florida and a large entertainment corporation even fighting? Let’s dissect this hilarious feud bit by bit. 

So, let’s start with the obvious question: what started this whole war between DeSantis and Disney? It all started when the Florida governor implemented the Don’t Say Gay bill, restricting schools in Florida from teaching curriculums related to LGBT+ issues or discussing queer/gender issues in the classroom. When this bill was first put in place, Disney critiqued the governor’s new bill after years of allyship with Florida’s government. Since Disney considers itself a large advocate for the queer community and loudly celebrate events like Pride month, CEO Bob Chapek publicly donated about $5 million to groups and organizations protecting LGBT+ rights as a retaliation to the bill. Since Disney World also funds most politicians in Florida whether Democratic or Republican, Chapek also publicly announced to suspending any funding towards DeSantis and the Republican party in opposition to the new bill. This of course caused huge buzz across the state and reached national news. Swiftly after this announcement, DeSantis’ team immediately lashed out on the company. In April, DeSantis expanded a legislative session on the state’s restricting plans to consider the “termination of all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968″. This expansion included the municipal taxing and government district that allows Disney to tax and regulate the parks and property. Following this, DeSantis signed a bill allowing state control over Reedy Creek, another property owned by Florida. The company replied to this bill with a lawsuit, alleging a “targeted campaign of government retaliation”. In the latest news of the feud, DeSantis at a conference pitched the idea of building a prison right by the parks. 

While this pitch was very loosely mentioned and has not been mentioned again since, the claim created a lot of speculation and pondering. What would it mean if DeSantis went through with the idea? And why mention it now? The reason it needs to be talked about now is the reoccuring issue of incarceration in the country. It’s not hard to tell that the country has a huge incarceration issue, especially regarding the rates of incarceration. In the United States alone, we have the sixth highest incarceration rate in the world. With that being said, why would we need to build another prison? The main reason politicians would build more prisons is to further incarcerate people they view as “criminals”. Because prisons have a lot to do with lobbying, politicians also utilize incarceration to criminalize people that oppose their policies, so it is no surprise DeSantis would want to build another prison with the backlash he’s gotten for the Don’t Say Gay bill, especially from Disney. Again, even though DeSantis has not acknowledged his comment, it is something to be taken seriously because of the extreme consequences it can cause on both Florida and across the country. 

Citations: 

Woodward, Alex. “DeSantis v. Disney: Why Florida’s Governor is at war with the Mouse”. May 2023. Independent News. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ron-desantis-disney-florida-reedy-creek-b2330530.html 

Battacharya, Ananya. “DeSantis is threatening to build a state prison next to Disney World”. April 2023. Quartz. https://qz.com/desantis-florida-prison-walt-disney-world-1850347094 

[thedynamicsofprejudice]

Ugly Betty’s Alexis Meade Character: Iconic or Offensive?

Over the past month, I’ve been re-watching a show I once loved along with many others, “Ugly Betty”. Ugly Betty was a 2006 ABC dramedy series that showed the life of Betty Suarez, a Mexican-American woman who plays the assistant to fashion magazine Mode’s editor-in-chief Daniel Meade. This show has many plot points, many being LGBT+ related. The one that was the most memorable was the character Alexis Meade-- Daniel’s trans sister who faked her death in order to transition, but comes back to take over as editor-in-chief once again. While having an openly-trans main character on an ABC show in the 2000′s was ahead of its time, the recent anti-trans laws being passed got me thinking: does Alexis’ character arc hold up through the perspective of actual trans people? 

In order to dissect the issues with Alexis’ representation, let’s use the GLAAD’s frame on writing trans characters. On GLAAD’s article of “Social Issues Impacting Trans People”, the authors discuss how to properly write and portray a trans character as a non-trans writer. 

“Respectful and accurate language is important”: GLAAD clarifies that the first step to writing a trans character is using the accurate language to address them. This includes using the correct pronouns, avoiding deadnaming, excluding slurs, etc. After applying this first step in analyzing Ugly Betty, this rule is already broken. The next three episodes after Alexis comes out as trans, her family and peers continue to use the incorrect pronouns and deadname her, this is especially visible with her father Bradford and her brother Daniel. The only characters that continue to use her correct pronouns and real name are Betty and her mother Claire. 

“Move beyond the transition narrative/Avoid Focusing on Medical Transition”: In these steps, GLAAD explains that focusing on a trans person’s transition reduces them to just their body rather than who they are. Making a transition seem “newsworthy” also “sensationalizes” a trans person’s transition, continuing to make it seem taboo to cisgendered people. However, in Ugly Betty, the first details everyone focuses on with Alexis is her transition. During Betty and Alexis’ first encounter, Alexis addresses Betty staring at her different body parts by telling her all the procedures she experienced in her transition. When Alexis’ coming out is televised in the news, the newscasters only make jokes and comments about her transition rather than talking about anything else. Writer Tanner Muller from the Star Observer explains it best in his article “Ugly Betty’s Problematic Transgender Character Arc: An Expose”: “Not only does this discredit her experiences...but also makes it seem as though audiences are ‘supposed’ to take pleasure in mocking or laughing at her situation”. 

While this is not part of GLAAD’s article, I thought it was important to include a step from Muller’s article: “Shown as the problem”: Muller explains that much of Alexis’ story is created for the reactions of those around her, especially her father. Instead of creating a trans character just to be a normal trans person, Alexis’ transness is written as a weapon against her father. Utilizing transness as a weapon portrays this notion that being trans is an inconvenience pushed onto others and that it is a negative thing. This is especially clear when we watch Daniel struggle to call Alexis by her real name or consider her his sister or when we watch her father turn her away because it would “ruin the family business”. It is also extremely important to clarify that Alexis is NOT played by a trans person. 

However, Ugly Betty came out in 2006, so why is it relevant now? Over the past year, the government has been passing a wave of anti-trans laws, many of them banning gender-affirming care. A huge reason these laws are being passed is because the misinformation about the trans community, and trans representation has a large part in it. In our time, our society heavily relies on media and representation to provide information, which includes representation of trans people. Since there is already little representation of trans people, people have to turn to characters like Alexis Meade, an outdated and offensive representation of trans people (especially when the actress isn’t actually trans). The point is not to “cancel” Ugly Betty, the show was actually quite progressive in discussing LGBT+ and racial/immigration issues and did a lot of good. However, this is why representation is important to discuss, because representation leads to how a community is viewed and how they will be treated in society. 

Citations: 

GLAAD, 2023. “Social Issues Impacting Trans People”. 

https://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender 

Muller, Tanner. “Ugly Betty’s Problematic Transgender Character Arc: An Expose”. The Star Observer, Jan. 2021. 

https://www.starobserver.com.au/artsentertainment/ugly-bettys-problematic-transgender-character-arc-an-expose/199988#:~:text=Another%20issue%20with%20Alexis%20Meade,and%20fake%20her%20own%20death.

[thedynamicsofprejudice]

Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

In the Summer of 1989, writer Peggy McIntosh came up with a list of privileges in her article titled “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” (University of Maryland). Since acknowledging one’s privilege has been especially important in our modern day, this article has become one of the standards for privilege-checking. And since it is important to acknowledge one’s privilege when talking about these social injustices, I must acknowledge my own privileges if I want to continue addressing these issues on this platform. So without further ado, here are my privileges: 

1. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live. 

2. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral/pleasant to me. 

3. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege. 

4. Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability. 

5. I can swear or dress in second-hand clothes without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race. 

6. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial. 

7. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider. 

8. If a traffic cop pulls me over or the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race. 

9. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race can’t get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen. 

10. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me. 

11. If my day/week/year are going badly, I don’t need to wonder if my race had anything to do with it. 

12. I can choose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color and have them more or less match my skin. 

13. I can arrange to protect my future children most of the time from people who might not like them. 

14. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having coworkers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race. 

15. I can find a hairdresser who can cut my hair. 

16. I have never been a victim of violence because of my race. 

17. I have never been called a slur because of my race. 

18. I am a U.S. citizen. 

19. I have never had to worry about being denied a position because of my race. 

20. I have never had to worry about being racially profiled. 

  I know many times I discuss social injustices racism. However, it would not be fair of me to continue talking about these issues without acknowledging my privileges because acknowledging our privilege is the first step to breaking down racist and oppressive systems. I was born in the U.S. from my white father and my immigrant Filipino mother who was in the process of becoming a citizen since 2000.  Ever since my mother came to this country, she experienced racism. People would either make fun of her race, tell her to go back to her country, or assume she was Hispanic and call her Hispanic slurs. After I was born, she began to experience more microaggressions because of the way I looked. Since I have always been white-passing but especially as a kid, people would ask if my mother was actually my mother, if I was stolen by her, or if she was my nanny. 

  After people learned I was half Filipino, that’s when I would experience microaggressions. People would call me exotic, say I was pretty for my race, or call me too “dumb to be Asian”. I was always either too white to be Asian or too Asian to be white. Even with all this type of racism attached to my identity, I still hold so much more racial privileges compared to others. If I had been darker, I could’ve been denied so many of the opportunities I’ve been offered now. If I had been born Hispanic or Black, I would’ve worried about violence I could experience because of my race. I would have to worry about run-ins with police, being profiled, being harassed for my race, getting improper healthcare or education because of my race, etc. because of the systemic racism that plagues every part of society. However, my place of privilege allows me to be able to speak up and help dismantle these racist systems without being silenced or turned away. The people with privilege can change things by raising up the voices of the oppressed and call out racism when we see it. If someone says something racist, I can call it out without fearing for my life or representing my entire race. If oppressed voices are being tuned out because of their race, my privilege allows me to raise their voice higher without being tuned out. That is why it is so crucial to acknowledge your privilege; to be able to utilize it to dismantle social injustices. Privileges are not something to get defensive over, it is something to use to help raise up the oppressed and to call out the injustices. 

Citations: 

 McIntosh, Peggy. 1989. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”. University of Maryland. 

https://psychology.umbc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2016/10/White-Privilege_McIntosh-1989.pdf 

[thedynamicsofprejudice]

Let’s Talk About the Don’t Say Gay Bill

July 1, 2022 the government of Florida put in place law HB 1557, commonly known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill originally proposed by Governor Ron DeSantis. The bill states that the purpose is to “prohibit classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grade levels or in a specified manner”. However, this bill brings up lots of questions; most importantly, where does this leave queer students, do they get to learn anything about themselves? Let’s talk about how this bill further implements heteronormativity into law and forces heterosexuality onto queer students. 

This is not the first time we have witnessed heteronormativity being forced into the education system. For decades, many states have enforced policies that exclude teaching queer issues like queer history, but especially in sex education classes. State laws in Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah require that sex education paint homosexuality in a negative light. In the Alabama state code, classes are required to teach “that homosexuality is not a life style acceptable to the general public” (section 160-40A-2). In the small curriculums of sex education classes across the country, queer students are deprived of learning about their own sex education and are strictly taught heterosexual sex. Teaching this curriculum largely assumes that all students are heterosexual while also suppressing queer students if they did speak up and ask questions about queer sex. Over time, other states like California have implemented SIECUS in their curriculum, which simply strives to include more positive information on LGBT+ related topics. However, while this attempt might make it seem like all is fine, these systems still heavily imply that queerness goes against the “norm” or is the odd one out. In the “Health Framework for California Public Schools: Kindergarten Through Twelve”, the legislature states, “children usually develop best when they live in a stable environment with their mother and father”. However, when mentioning families that do not have a mom and dad, they were labeled as “non-traditional”. In the book “The Meaning of Difference” authors Karen Rosenblum and Toni-Michelle Travis explain the harm the label “non-traditional” can cause to the non-nuclear family. “The juxtaposition of the description of two-parent heterosexual, married families with a discussion of ‘non-traditional’ families (and the use of the word ‘however’), implies that non-heteronormative families are not ‘functional’, ‘stable’ or ‘consistent’” (pg. 428, section 46). 

These past failures now lead us back to present-day Florida. Ever since the bill has been put in place, students, parents, and teachers across the state have been protesting against it, encouraging safer spaces for queer students or queer faculty members, since history has showed that the education system continues to fail the LGBT+ community. Remember, all students deserve to learn about their own history and sex education, and being non-heterosexual does not make you less “functional”. Supporting young LGBT+ people to grow into confident adults starts at the education system, but it is only catering to heteronormativity. That is why talking about the Don’t Say Gay bill today is so crucial, because it affects our education system to this day. Bills like this continue to suppress LGBT+ youth, preparing us for failure. So, as we watch these representatives and lawmakers create these bills, we need to ask if they really care about the education of children or if they just care about silencing queer voices. 

Here are some hotlines and resources to look into for queer people if you need anything: 

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/explore/ 

LGBT National Youth Hotline: 800-246-7743

LGBT National Hotline: 888-843-4564

Cited: 

https://platform.virdocs.com/r/s/0/doc/553769/sp/180858793/mi/575303810?cfi=%2F4%2F4 

https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/2022-06/FL%20Dont%20Say%20Gay%20KYR%20-%20Updated2022.06.pdf 

https://lgbtqia.ucdavis.edu/support/hotlines