Celebrate International Transgender Day of Remembrance with Double Denim Dude

Celebrate International Transgender Day of Remembrance with Double Denim Dude

Saturday people celebrated like we weren’t in a pandemic, because it has been a trying 3.5+ years. Many have agreed that we need to change the culture that has complimented this administration, but I am personally haunted by the people that voted for the status quo. As I reflected with friends throughout the weekend, they shared almost universally, that their “celebrations” were in fact dulled by inconvenient truths about the status of Black, Brown, Indigenous, and non-binary lives and bodies. As people throughout the week, emboldened by their now exiting leader, called for civil war, activists and organizers tried to subtly remind the world, that our fight for citizenship and rights has never ceased. 

***We pause this message to raise our flag in honor of the newly-elected VP 🇯🇲****

I Voted

 

These past 3+ years have been a mirror that many could not cover with drapes or the dusts of “tradition”, but it does not mean that the work ends at “acknowledging” the problem. Further, we can’t name things, without any interest in un-making them. To call someone racist is not enough; one has to understand how racism* creates minorities out of different categories - religion, nationality, sexuality, geography, etc - and shapes circumstances for those people. As part of our “unmaking” we incorporated concepts of intersectionality, acknowledging the way race among other identities creates overlapping forms of oppression against people with multiple marginalized identities. But still, there is much work to be done to see people who identify with individual identities more prominently, to see those overlaps as reasons for coalition-building. 

We have acknowledged racism; the need to support economic and cultism endeavors of Black people, but we still have so much work to do to ASSERT that when we say “Black Lives Matter” we are not upholding the tradition of speaking about men (by men), but acknowledging how racism is connected to sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. We concede, following the writing of C. Riley Snorton, that blackness, like sexual identity is in motion; therefore we conclude that we can’t approach or talk about Black mobility (or advancement) without thinking about the mobility of Black women; black sexual minorities; black immigrants; black disabled people; and other Black people* that deviate from perceptions of a “norm”. 

It is my goal in owning this business to celebrate and represent different Black identities and cultures. We had a major victory this past Saturday for cis-gendered, educated, Black women, but I want to assert (on my* business page) that there are still so many more Black girls that are seeking representation. In honor of those living and spiritual BIPOC girls and people who identify as transgender, we are incorporating Double Denim Dude LGBTQIA pins, and “we will not be erased” pens into our collection.

Consider purchasing a pin in honor of International Transgender Day or Remembrance November 20th, or even pens to remind you that the struggle is ongoing. The President and VP-elect offered statements in solidarity with transgender people, but we have a long road until January, and further towards political/social change. In the interim, please visit the Double Denim Dude products within the Palmy gifts and Palmy stationary collections. Let me know what you think!

 We Will Not be Erased

#KeepItPG

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