[I could not help but read this speech through transgender eyes. There are similarities between the struggle for civil rights that raged in 1960's America, and the struggle for transgender and other queer rights in the present day. We require political maturity as transgender individuals in transgender community. This is just an excerpt here and there. Read the entire speech here.]
--We must understand the politics of our community and we must know what politics is supposed to produce. We must know what part politics play in our lives. And until we become politically mature we will always be mislead, lead astray, or deceived or maneuvered into supporting someone politically who doesn’t have the good of our community at heart. So the political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we will have to carry on a program, a political program, of re-education to open our people's eyes, make us become more politically conscious, politically mature, and then we will -- whenever we get ready to cast our ballot, that ballot will be -- will be cast for a man of the community who has the good of the community of heart.
... They don’t attack me because I’m a Muslim; they attack me 'cause I’m black. They attack all of us for the same reason; all of us catch hell from the same enemy. We’re all in the same bag, in the same boat. We suffer political oppression, economic exploitation, and social degradation -- all of them from the same enemy. The government has failed us; you can’t deny that. Anytime you live in the twentieth century, 1964, and you walkin' around here singing “We Shall Overcome,” the government has failed us.
... This government has failed us; the government itself has failed us, and the white liberals who have been posing as our friends have failed us. And once we see that all these other sources to which we’ve turned have failed, we stop turning to them and turn to ourselves. We need a self help program, a do-it -- a-do-it-yourself philosophy, a do-it-right-now philosophy, a it’s-already-too-late philosophy.
... This is a philosophy that eliminates the necessity for division and argument. 'Cause if you're black you should be thinking black, and if you are black and you not thinking black at this late date, well I’m sorry for you. Once you change your philosophy, you change your thought pattern. Once you change your thought pattern, you change your -- your attitude. Once you change your attitude, it changes your behavior pattern and then you go on into some action. As long as you gotta sit-down philosophy, you’ll have a sit-down thought pattern, and as long as you think that old sit-down thought you’ll be in some kind of sit-down action. They’ll have you sitting in everywhere. It’s not so good to refer to what you’re going to do as a "sit-in." That right there castrates you. Right there it brings you down. What -- What goes with it? What -- Think of the image of a someone sitting. An old woman can sit. An old man can sit. A chump can sit. A coward can sit. Anything can sit. Well you and I been sitting long enough, and it’s time today for us to start doing some standing, and some fighting to back that up.
... When we look like -- at other parts of this earth upon which we live, we find that black, brown, red, and yellow people in Africa and Asia are getting their independence. They’re not getting it by singing “We Shall Overcome.” No, they’re getting it through nationalism. It is nationalism that brought about the independence of the people in Asia. Every nation in Asia gained its independence through the philosophy of nationalism.
... What do you call second class citizenship? Why, that’s colonization. Second class citizenship is nothing but 20th century slavery. How you gonna tell me you’re a second class citizen? They don’t have second class citizenship in any other government on this earth. They just have slaves and people who are free. Well this country is a hypocrite. They try and make you think they set you free by calling you a second class citizen. No, you’re nothing but a 20th century slave.
...
Liberty or death was what brought about the freedom of whites in this country from the English. They didn’t care about the odds. Why they faced the wrath of the entire British Empire. And in those days they used to say that the British Empire was so vast and so powerful when the sun -- the sun would never set on it. This is how big it was, yet these 13 little scrawny states, tired of taxation without representation, tired of being exploited and oppressed and degraded, told that big British Empire “liberty or death.”
And here you have 22 million Afro-American black people today catching more hell than Patrick Henry ever saw. And I’m -- I’m here to tell you in case you don’t know it -- that you got a new -- you got a new generation of black people in this country who don’t care anything whatsoever about odds. They don’t want to hear you old Uncle Tom handkerchief heads talking about the odds. No. This is a new generation. If they’re gonna draft these young black men and send them over to Korea or South Vietnam to face 800 million Chinese -- if you’re not afraid of those odds, you shouldn’t be afraid of these odds.
... So it’s the -- it's the ballot or the bullet. Today our people can see that we’re faced with a government conspiracy. This government has failed us. The senators who are filibustering concerning your and my rights, that's the government. Don’t say it’s Southern senators. This is the government; this is a government filibuster. It’s not a segregationist filibuster. It’s a government filibuster. Any kind of activity that takes place on the floor of the Congress or the Senate, that's the government. Any kind of dilly-dallying, that’s the government. Any kind of pussy-footing, that’s the government. Any kind of act that’s designed to delay or deprive you and me right now of getting full rights, that’s the government that's responsible. And any time you find the government involved in a conspiracy to violate the citizenship or the civil rights of a people, then you are wasting your time going to that government expecting redress. Instead, you have to take that government to the World Court and accuse it of genocide and all of the other crimes that it is guilty of today.
...
So, I say in my conclusion the only way we're going to solve it -- we gotta unite in unity and harmony, and Black Nationalism is the key. How we gonna overcome the tendency to be at each other's throats that always existsin our neighborhoods? And the reason this tendency exists, the strategy of the white man has always been divide and conquer. He keeps us divided in order to conquer us. He tells you I’m for separation and you're for integration to keep us fighting with each other. No, I’m not for separation and you’re not for integration. What you and I is for is freedom. Only you think that integration will get you freedom, I think separation will get me freedom. We both got the same objective. We just got different ways of getting at it.
So I...studied this man, Billy Graham, who preaches White Nationalism. That’s what he preaches. I say that’s what he preaches. The whole church structure in this country is White Nationalism. You go inside a white church -- that’s what they preaching: White Nationalism. They got Jesus white, Mary white, God white, everybody white -- that’s White Nationalism. So what he does -- the way he -- the way he -- the way he circumvents the -- the jealousy and envy that he ordinarily would incur among the heads of the church, wherever he go into an area where the church already is you going into trouble, 'cause they got that thing -- what you call it -- syndicated, they got a syndicate just like the Racketeers have. I’m going to say what’s on my mind 'cause the churches are, the preachers already proved to you that they got a syndicate.
And when you're out in the rackets, whenever you're getting in another man’s territory, you know, they gang up on you. And that’s the same way with you -- you ran into the same thing. So how Billy Graham gets around that, instead of going into somebody else’s territory, like he going to start up a new church, he don't -- he doesn’t try to start a church. He just goes in preaching Christ. And he says everybody who believe in Him, you go wherever -- you go wherever you find him. So this helps all the churches and so since it helps all the churches they don’t fight him.
Well, we gonna do the same thing, only our gospel is Black Nationalism. His gospel is White Nationalism; our gospel is Black Nationalism. And the gospel of Black Nationalism, as I told you, means you should control your own -- the politics of your community, the economy of your community, and all of the society in which you live should be under your control. And...once you...feel that this philosophy will solve your problem, go join any church where that’s preached. Don’t join a church where White Nationalism is preached. Now you can go to a negro church and be exposed to White Nationalism, 'cause you are -- when you walk in a negro church and a white Mary and some white angels -- that Negro church is preaching White Nationalism.
But when you go to a church and you see the pastor of that church with a philosophy and a program that’s designed to bring black people together and elevate black people -- join that church. Join that church. If you see where the NAACP is preaching and practicing that which is designed to make Black Nationalism materialize -- join the NAACP. Join any kind of organization -- civic, religious, fraternal, political, or otherwise that’s based on lifting the black man up and making him master of his own community.
It’ll be -- It’ll be the -- the ballot or it’ll be the bullet. It’ll be liberty or it’ll be death. And if you’re not ready to pay that price don’t use the word freedom in your vocabulary.
--The Ballot or the Bullet, delivered on April 12, 1964
written December 29, 2008)
I just saw MILK (the movie) and was inspired to see what I could find on You Tube. I located a presentation of an excerpt of his famous and oft repeated speech, called the "Hope Speech." (see You Tube insert, on Home Page).
Add the words "transgender" or "transsexual" or "intersex" or "bisexual" or "gender variant" or "pansexual" or "polyamorous" or any non-normative monikker you can devise to Harvey Milk's classic speech, and it is spot-on for the present day. I was so sad to recognize that the same story could have taken place in 2008, replacing Proposition 6 (in favor of gay rights) with Proposition 8 (changes the constitution of California in opposition to gay marriage), the murder of Harvey Milk with the murder of Lawrence King (14 year old cross-dressing gay teen killed during school by a classmate) and others. Yes, we need hope. But more than simple emotion, as Mr Milk's speech continues, we need more queer politicians.
I say more than that, we need difference that is visible in our public spaces. Of course, with the President Elect we are headed in a good direction. But how far are we from electing a woman president? A transgender person?
We need more transgender politicians. A victory in a discrimination suit against the Library of Congress is a good start. But we need transfolk in local and federal government. Transfolk in the media. Not as tragic characters in soap operas or movies, but maybe something like TransAmerica with an actual transperson in the title role. Transfolk on the schoolboard and the City Council. And we need them to be OUT OUT OUT so that at a minimum violence against us may be stopped, but certainly, so that we may live free from fear, as citizens of this nation and the world. (So you say, Noach, but who wants to step boldly forward to be assassinated, like Mr. Milk?)
We must enjoy freedom so that we might, at long last, expend our energies in the service of this Earthly communal being rather than toward the gargantuan effort of survival when so many hands and hearts are turned against us. We must enjoy freedom so that we might, at long last, develop our exceptional talents, our sills and abilities, our passions and our untapped reserves of heroism and greatness. We must fight for that freedom, and recognize it as the cause for which we will lay down our lives, because without that freedom our energies are expended fruitlessly; fruitlessly, impotently: the fruit of our creative and constructive lives will not be enabled to blossom into the world. With the Genesis tasks of increase and multiplication concluded, with the task of the domination of the earth accomplished (perhaps to the detriment of us all), the remaining instruction to be fulfilled is to educate ourselves toward stewardship of one another and our planet. We are the inheritors of that task. We must practically help one another, now, this moment, and always. No exceptions. We are ONE family on this spinning ball.
Our stewardship must institute the practice of acting in spite of fear. I'm sick and tired of being afraid, even in Berkeley, California, to dress or act in a manner that crosses traditional binary gender lines. I am afraid to be beaten or killed, like the fourteen year old Lawrence King earlier this year (2008), because of the way I act or dress. Yesterday I went to the local swimming pool, as I do on a typical day, and after my workout I decided to visit the hot tub for a ten minute soak. As I stepped down into the tub, a man already immersed in the hot water stared at me, could not pull his eyes from my surgically scarred chest. There was hate in his eyes. I met his gaze, mildly, expressionlessly, until he looked away. He was visibly agitated, and soon left the hot tub. I had courage, with other people present, to meet his gaze fearlessly. I don't know if I would be that brave on a dark Berkeley street. Even though this gym has a shower and changing-room specifically for transgender persons, for which I daily thank this liberal city and its historically vocal transgender citizens, I have no illusion that even here in Berkeley, this bastion of liberalism, there is safe haven for people like me.
This is NOT OK. I am not, not not not "fine with it."
Being able to pass for male is a closet, just as surely as is passing for "straight." I tell myself that I do not intentionally closet myself, when in cold hard truth my transition has sequestered my female body inside an apparently male closet. I tell myself I am out, that I open the door all the time. But in truth, I am glad the door shuts again. I am glad to have the rest and stability granted by this carefully constructed but imperfect masculine shell. Where it breaks down -- as it does when I show half of my body to swim as men do in our culture; as it does when I reveal a part of my history that a "real man" could never have experienced -- my divergence from the norm is exposed and I am vulnerable to approbation or attack. The clear thing to remember is that BOTH options are possible.
When I am met with attack, I will take my stand in my values and my tradition.
When I am met with attack, I will resist, in as peaceful a manner as is possible.
To the best of my ability (and I vow to increase that ability this year) I will act to preserve life and liberty.
I want to encourage each of us to Jewishly express approbation when we encounter the special significance of gender divergence in ourselves and in others, by reminding ourselves of the following blessings our tradition requires of us. The first is traditionally spoken when we see something special (the siddur says a King):
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha’olam, shenatan mik’vodo l’vasar vadam
Blessed are You, Adonai our God, ruler of the universe, who has given of Your glory to flesh and blood. (Literally, 'who has given of Your glory to humankind,' but I like this translation by Rabbi Sarah Wolf of Congregation Beth Am better).
The second is spoken when we see something exceptionally strange-looking:
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha’olam, m’shaneh habriyot.
Blessed are You, Adonai our God, ruler of the universe, who makes creatures different.
It is with these words I find hope from my tradition, from my people, for the world as it exists in the present moment. And let us all say
Amen.
Rachel Adler's "Engendering Judaism" comes out in Hebrew; makes waves in some parts of Israel.
Wedding montage from CBST. It goes without saying. A San Diego Republican has a change of heart.
by Rabbi David Seidenberg
(Translation slightly revised by Rabbi Arthur Waskow)
Here I am ready with my vote
Hareni muchan b'hatsbei`ati
to seek peace for this country, as it's written:
lidrosh shalom ba`ad ham'dinah hazot, k'mo shekatuv
"And you will seek peace of the city where I exile you to"
v'dirshu et sh'lom ha`ir asher higleti etchem shama
"and you will pray for her sake to YHWH, for through her peace you will have peace"
v'hitpal'lu ba`adah el YHWH ki bish'lomah yihyeh lakhem shalom
May it be Your will that my vote will be accounted as if I fulfilled this verse in all its meaning,
y'hi ratson milfanekha shet'hei hatsbei`ati chashuvah k'ilu qiyamti hakatuv bkhol `atsmato
and just as I participated in elections today
uk'shem shehishtatfti b'v'chirut hayom
so may I merit doing good deeds and healing the world with all my actions
ken ezkeh/ezkah l'ma`asim tovim ul'tikun `olam b'khol po`alai
May it be good in Your eyes, YHWH my God and God of my forebears,
y'hi tov b`einekha YHWH elohai v'elohey horai
that you give a heart of wisdom to those whom we choose today
shetiten l'vav chokhmah lmi shanu bochrim hayom
and give to us and to all the peoples of this country
v'ten lanu ulkhol ha`amim bam'dinah hazot
the strength and will to pursue righteousness and to seek peace as one unity
hakoach v'haratson lirdof tsedek ul'vakesh shalom k'agudah achat
and may you raise up a government for us for the sake of good and blessing
v'tisa' lanu memshelah l'tovah ulivrakhah
to cause to grow throughout the world lives of goodness and peace
l'hatsmi'ach bkhol ha`olam chayyim shel tovah v'chayyim shel shalom
for us and for all your Godwrestling folk, Yisrael, and for all the
inhabitants of the world, and for Jerusalem -- the City of Peace, Ir HaShalom; the heritage of the world, Yerushat Olam.
aleinu v`al kol amkha yisra'el v`al kol yoshvey teivel, v`al y'rushalayim
"And may the pleasure of YHWH our God be on us, and may the One establish the work of our hands for us, may the work of our hands be established"
viy'hi no`am YHVH eloheynu `aleinu uma`aseh yadeinu kon'nah `aleinu, uma`aseh yadeinu kon'neihu.
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