Within Andrea Ritchie's chapter on Queer Injustice, there were many points that I found interesting and thought provoking. The point that remained in my mind as I read the chapter was the idea that instead of trying to get justice and hold police officers accountable for their violence against queer people of color, especially transgender women of color, big LGBT organizations focus on reforming hate crime laws.
The idea behind enforcing hate crime laws seems like a good idea on the surface, but the more I think about it, the more it seems useless for the people who really need protection. People of color in general face discrimination within the legal system even with laws that are meant to prohibit it, so if we are seeing that laws really don't prevent anything, then why is that what people are fighting for? Ritchie made this point clear when she quoted Casey Lanham as saying "A law could be very helpful to someone like me… white, affluent, with resources at my disposal and connections. But how does having the law in place help someone who otherwise remains invisible?” (Ritchie,143). They have been proven to be ineffective in stopping law enforcement from mistreating and violating the rights and bodies of queer people of color.
Creating laws doesn't solve the issue of the harm being done to queer people of color by the police and throughout the criminal justice system, yet this is what the mainstream LGBT movements continuously aim for. The chapter touched on the issue of the mainstream movement simply wanted to assimilate into the current system and this is one prime example of this. What needs to be understood is that the law has never been on the side of people of color or queer people and when there are people who happen to fall into both categories of difference, the oppression and violence they face is much more intense. Stopping the violence against queer people of color will not be solved by any amount of laws as long as there is still so much racism, sexism, and homophobia within the system.
As an avid Facebook user and queer person of color myself, I often follow large LGBT organizations (that I know begin to question). One such organization is the Human Rights Campaign, who often keep tabs on the violence that faces the Transgender community, especially transwomen of color. As it is now February of 2018, the HRC has reported at least 4 transgender women have been murdered, all women of color. The HRC has continuously advocated for the increase of Hate Crime laws and heavier enforcement of them, ignoring the grueling truth that no law is going to protect these women. As the nation's largest LGBT organization, it's really sad to seem such power directed in the wrong direction.
https://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-transgender-community-in-2018
Q: What community accountability strategies can be applied when it comes to law enforcement as we slowly move to the abolishment of prisons and law enforcement?
Dom,
ReplyDeleteI did my last blog post on the same reading, so it's funny that you also included information from the Human Rights Campaign surrounding transgender people of color who have been wrongly murdered by police officers and other US citizens. Mainstream LGBTQ groups need to stop thinking that creating more laws will do anything to stop these injustices from happening.Clearly, as we discussed in class and read in Queer Injustice, these laws do not do anything to protect queer people or people of color. They are still in great dangers of being harassed, raped, beaten, and murdered. This is because of prevailing homophobia, sexism, and racism that are intense underlying factors preventing these oppressed communities from seeing any true injustice. I appreciate your insight, especially as being a queer person of color...your opinions are extremely valid and I can understand your concern for the lack of justice in these terrible situations.