With Capital B

When I told you that Drag Queens and Trans women were gonna save the day I was not kidding. Bob the Drag Queen and Peppermint (both RPDR's alumni) recently created the first Black Queer Townhall and talked about healing, rejoicing, mourning and joy in the Black community. It was about Reflection, Action and Black Joy.

It was a three-day online event and I watched it every day. It was fantastic, to say the least, and illuminating, to be truthful. When you have Black people talking about Black people's issues, you get the whole picture. One of the things that jumped at me was that they got Dr. Angela Davis. yes, the iconic Angela Davis of Black Panther's fame! to talk about the current situation regarding police brutality and the state of Black Lives Matter. I almost fell off my chair when Bob and Pep appeared on screen and announced that Davis was a guest in the Townhall. When she identified herself as a communist, evolutionist, internationalist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, feminist, Black, queer, activist, pro-working class, revolutionary, intellectual community builder I was in heaven. Intersectionality, darling.



I won't tell you what they talked about. I'll let you watch. But it was illuminating and it made me feel like the kids are all right. From the moment they asked Dr. Davis to identify herself (a communist, evolutionist, internationalist, anti-racist,  anti-capitalist, feminist, Black, queer, activist, pro-working class, revolutionary, intellectual community builder? Sign me up!)  to the moment Pep thanks Dr. Davis for the conversation it was fantastic. The joy Pep and Bob shared during this interview with Davis is contagious and it gives me hope. But I'll let you draw your own conclusions, though. A reading of the intersectionality and activism they spouse brings also the inclusion of a discussion of the violence transgender people of color suffer. And we all know that intersectionality is key. Drawing from different struggles is necessary and useful. We need to listen to these voices. Our role is to listen and pass the message.

So I'll let you with the three days of this Black Queer Town Hall, in case you have some free time during this pandemic.










Oh, and did you know that the AP is capitalizing Black from now on?

On Juneteenth, the Associate Press announced that it was updating its style guide to capitalize the B in Black. The decision came after a week in which USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and NBC News all made the switch.

“AP’s style is now to capitalize Black in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity, and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa,” wrote John Daniszewski, the AP’s vice president for standards, in a blog post. “The lowercase black is a color, not a person.”


I think it was about fucking time that we capitalize that B.

XOXO