Reviewing How to be an Antiracist

‘I am not, nor ever have been, in favour of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been in favour of making voters of the free negroes, or jurors, or qualifying them to hold office, or having them marry with white people. I will say in addition that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which, I suppose, will forbid the two races living together upon terms of social and political equality; and inasmuch as they cannot so live, that while they do remain together, there must be the position of the superiors and the inferiors; and that I, as much as any other man, am in favour of the superior position being assigned to the white man.’

–               Abraham Lincoln.

From WE Woodward’s A New American History – Published by Faber and Faber Ltd.  

• 1

Towards the end of last year, I was asked to write a book on racism.

At a glance, it appeared to be manna from heaven for me.

But in the event it was a cutthroat assignment. I was approached by a small East European ‘publishing’ company to write a book-length critique of Professor Ibram X Kendi’s important How to be an Antiracist.

Apart from the research and writing that was to go into this ‘ambitious’ project, I was summoned to do a portion of the publishing work as well. I had to format and edit; tasks traditionally assigned to publishing staff.

I was naïve. A story for another day. We are here to talk about how to be an antiracist. Not a non-racist or non-racialist. An antiracist. There are differences.

• 2

What was refreshing for me in writing the critical overview of Kendi’s book was the opportunity of being able to read his book at least half a dozen times. I was provided with more than enough interest, personal intrigue and stimulation. It is a book that deserves to be read by all. This material opportunity was self-funded.

By publishing rights, I can return to the book and re-write it for both your benefit and for others who will be seeing it in magazine form elsewhere. Kendi’s work was merely a reference point for me. I found at times, sometimes with a little irritation, that Kendi was oblivious to history. Or was this deliberate? Because as you know, ignorance is not hereditary nor is it an inheritance. It is a personal choice.

Outing (white) racism as it manifested itself throughout recorded history, Professor Kendi chooses the Portuguese enslavement of the Angolans during the 14th century. And therein begins his tale. But there is no summarized account of the ancient history that preceded the Portuguese slavers and their Angolan slaves, with perhaps one of the most famous examples being that of the Israelites’ enslavement by the Egyptians. Whether Biblical or orally told throughout generations by the elders on the evening of Shabbat, it is a colorful account nevertheless.

Of course, in context with the book’s central theme, the slave highlight is American and Abraham Lincoln’s response to it is critical. And of course, the generations that followed after what turned out to be one of the most brutal wars fought have been mentioned by Kendi. But to his credit, he does acknowledge his omissions. New discoveries made by him in personal life, not through academia; turn out to be enlightening and ennobling.

• 3

My personal highlight of Kendi’s acknowledgements was his about-turn towards gay men and lesbian women and of course his statement of intent highlighting the fact, the very fact, that amongst all of the country’s minorities, black African-American transgendered women are The most marginalized (my emphasis). The choice of words was perhaps polite, given Kendi’s conversion to antiracism. Perhaps the following would have been apt as well?

The most oppressed!

So, to my mind, by focusing attention on the most marginalized in our multicultural societies, we might eventually make some headway in ridding our societies of racism and all forms of oppression. I have been told. I have been questioned. Is this a pipe-dream? Is this a mission impossible? I think not. Indeed, one of the last century’s most famous anti-racists said it himself. It only looks impossible until it is done.

And to my mind, if we do nothing now, just as a so-called non-racist would, we will continue going around in circles for the next few generations. But in the interim, you would usually find too that those of us who find ourselves on the wrong side of the railway tracks as it were, are usually the ones that do stand up to be counted. I find myself in that group today. I was always there. Indeed, it was about five years ago that a professed (not self-confessed) racist once accused me of sitting on the fence.

That may well have been the case back then in the sense that I was endeavoring to practice diplomacy. But it is an unworkable solution towards those who remain unrepentant, and for that matter, ignorant. I suspect that professed non-racialists are the fence-sitters of note. But not antiracists. Antiracists get off their backsides and do something about the racial oppression and for that matter, once more, about all other forms of oppression and prejudice.

As far as I am concerned, the day has long passed to be making compromising decisions or placing one’s self in compromising positions. You are either in. Or you are out. I’m out. Are you? 

• 4

When drawing up my review of Kendi’s book I was given space for expressing myself on a personal level. The literary reader would usually regard this as subjectivity but I did my best in keeping this to a minimum. As it turned out, I never really needed to draw too much on my personal experiences with racism and all other forms of discrimination. Because it is all out there. And it was not necessary for me to draw too much on Kendi’s autobiographical references either.

I was able to quote from history as I had read it, and understood it. And today, I am still making new discoveries. 

• 5

Professor Ibram Kendi’s motivations for wanting to publish a book like this reminds me of my own revelations of last year. It is coincidental that the book was published in the same year I chose to be more forthright in my personal views about racism and all forms of discrimination – gender, sex, class, culture, religion, political. Both Kendi and I seem to agree that there can be no compromise in endeavoring to trample racism deep into the ground. I am also reminded of two contrasting views on this stance.

A wise gentleman once suggested to me that it would be wholly unrealistic and naïve to crack racism and confine it to oblivion. And my partner suggested that it remains a case of ‘live and let live’. And to continue to respect those who hold opposing views to me. What she is in effect saying is let them believe that racism has its place in twenty-first century society. And for that matter, let the gender prejudice and abuse continue.

But in her case, she has simply grown tired of it all. I am tired too. Kendi, a few years older than my partner, in spite of his personal battles with cancer, is as fresh as a daisy. Perhaps as an African American gentleman, he would not have appreciated the idiomatic reference but perhaps since his awakening towards LGBTQI+ life, he would not have minded. What can I say; we are in this together, brother.

• 6

If you are remotely curious about how to come to the point in your life where you would finally be able to rid yourself of racism, be free from it all, whether as a white person or black, you have got to read this book. Needless to say that if you are sick and tired of racism and want it to end, just like me, then you will eventually come to a position of antiracism. And if you are a woman or part of the LGBTQI+ community in terms of your gender or sexual orientation, then it would be nice for you to get a (sensitive) male perspective on how to combat (not accommodate) racism and gender oppression.

• 7

Many of Kendi’s references to racism are anecdotal, drawn as they are from personal experience, and that at least is refreshing. It is at least honest. But the objectivity is, critically, qualified. Whilst I did have misgivings about Kendi’s references to slavery, I was enthralled with his accounts of structural racism since American independence right through to the present day.

He, for instance, gave me a new perspective on the likes of the Clintons and Malcolm X. And is it any wonder then that President Obama overcame. Incidentally, and this came as no surprise to me, Obama was a far greater admirer of the late Malcolm X than fellow-Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr. For the record, I had examined the former president’s own literary accounts some years ago just after he was inaugurated as the first African American, black, biracial, call him what you will, President of the United States of America. Never mind her philandering husband, but Hilary Clinton was found out. And we did not need Trump to out her. He is one to talk. Lincoln’s view of slavery and the Civil War was important to mention. And if you thought Donald Trump was bad, then roll back the years to Reaganism and the (so-called) New Deal. It is rather curious but it seems to be the case that it was only the Kennedy brothers who offered a beacon of hope in terms of disseminating and disemboweling structural and legislative racism.

But they were assassinated.

By any means necessary.

• 8

An effective way to propagate a good story is to tell the truth. Kendi, to my mind has done justice to truth-telling. I particularly enjoyed his tales on the Biblical Apostle Paul and the radical antiracist Malcolm X. Paul was unstinting in his views on how men and women should live their lives while Jesus Christ was a lot more conciliatory. Malcolm X also had his Damascus moment when he saw through the fault lines of the Nation of Islam.

And this perhaps is one of the highlights of the book. Kendi sermonizes that one – as a black man – cannot overcome and oppose white supremacy by exhibiting racist behavior against the opponent. It is impractical and downright hypocritical. I was given a new perspective on the historic Black Lives Matter campaign and can say that, even as a South-African born (white) male, I am fully behind it. Speaking of which, I could easily contrast America’s racial history with that of South Africa.

As I have said elsewhere, racism in South Africa has come full circle.

• 9

Perhaps a timely note on the South African cultural and racial condition, circa August 2021, would be appropriate at this point.

The country is sucked into a massive third wave of yet another deadly variant of what started out as the ‘novel’ coronavirus. But to make matters worse, a minority of the country’s black majority population went on the rampage. In what began as a mock-protest against former president Jacob Zuma’s overdue incarceration, it was deemed to be a good time to go looting and burning. Damage untold, billions in revenue to the country lost, even vaccine vials pillaged. Numerous small businesses, most of them black-owned, collapsed.

But the master of ceremonies to this looting spree merely showed up the aftermath, surrounded by two inept generals. Allow me to explain. Many ‘thinking’ South Africans would demand to differ but to my mind, South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa is the most hideous exemplar of a 21^st century model racist. What Trump could have learned from this man. What the Clintons admired about this man. Professing non-racialism and unity in diversity, the country’s president rubberstamps structural racism. 

• 10

Minorities are still denied fair and equal opportunities in formal job markets. Former finance minister, Trevor Manuel is complicit in this pretense of equality, heading up the country’s largest but misfiring and underachieving insurance company. It all began when the country’s ruling party and its previous oppressors agreed to a deal known otherwise in history as the Sunset Clause. Instead of abiding by the world’s most liberal, fair and just constitution, which Ramaphosa ironically oversaw, the ANC and NP (National Party) under the pretense of ensuring a smooth transition from apartheid to democracy, made sure that they retained a lion’s share of the country’s vast resources.   

• 11

I do not believe that a classless society is possible, nor is it necessary. Indeed, it is as Karl Marx once said; each to his (and her) own. But the current pandemic has allowed every right-thinking lady and gentleman to see the fault-lines of the world’s crass inequality. South Africa continues to burden itself as the most unequal in the world. Brazil and the Philippines are not far behind. The inequality continues to be based or influenced by race, gender and materialism. Inasmuch as numerous neo-rightwing Red belters would wish to violently disagree, there is strength in diversity. Cultural diversity is not only desirable for me and many likeminded men and women but necessary.  

• 12

Let’s assume that you are amongst the world’s richest ten percent. What happens to your enterprise when the remaining ninety percent runs out of the means to purchase your goods and services? You go bust!

Good-bye!

‘We are being called like our forefathers and foremothers to be the moral defibrillators of our time … That is why I’m so concerned about those that say so much about what God says so little, while saying so little about what God says so much. And so in my heart, I’m troubled. And I’m worried about the way faith is cynically used by some to serve hate, fear, racism, and greed.

When we fight for 15 (on minimum wage) and a union and universal health care and public education and immigrant rights and (LGBT) rights, we are reviving the heart of our democracy.

When we develop tax and trade policies that no longer funnel our prosperity to the wealthy few, we are reviving the heart of our democracy.

When we hear the legitimate discontent of Black Lives Matter and come together to renew justice in our criminal justice system, we are embracing our deepest moral values and reviving the heart of our democracy.’

• Bishop CL Franklin, father of Aretha Franklin.  

From June Sarpong’s Diversify, Published by HQ, 2017.

My Reading Process for Now

In memory of Jonathan Ball.

After moving house earlier this year, I felt an urge to explain to you why I am reading in this manner.

As I write this, I look behind my shoulder. There are no less than twelve books placed in an orderly fashion on my bed and my nightstand. No, no, no; that array has diminished somewhat since I originally began drafting My Reading Process for Now. So you see, having finished a few titles here and there, packed them away in my cupboard, I’ve gone on to new titles. And finished those as well.

There are also those that I have returned to, yet again, and in this reading list presented to you here, those of you who have been avidly following my blog since last year when I produced Writing with Pride, may have recognised a couple of exceptional titles. By now some of you will be familiar with the transgender theme that I continue to press. Subsequently, I also became addicted to Virginia Woolf’s brilliant Orlando.

I cannot say that I am in love with this remarkable protagonist because after all, I am already in Love with one Samantha Utay Rueca Atencio the Third who hails all the way from the troubled islands of the Philippines. She is a Harry Potter fan, by the way, although what she thinks of JK Rowling these days is now another matter altogether.

And Orlando has been shelved for now. This, however, has nothing to do with Mrs. Woolf’s prodigious reference to ‘savages’ in her Collected Essays, which I will surely be critiquing at another time. I am keeping Orlando to one side. To be re-read. And to be re-reviewed.

Now, without looking behind me, let me run through the remaining book titles with you.

And then proceed to explain my process of reading for now. And why I am reading in this manner.

I am re-reading Jared Diamond’s magnificently written and researched Collapse, using it as a reference point for a later article boldly titled CLIMATE CHANGE!. I am thrilled to tell you that I have David Remnick’s The Bridge on my table as well. I am utilising the biography as a precursor to my reading of President Obama’s latest and best-selling memoir, A Promised Land. And hope to be writing about these books too at a later time.

I was even more thrilled to come across one of my favourite history writer’s more recent tomes. This one is titled The War of the World. And the writer is none other than Niall Ferguson. I am preoccupied with racism and what could be done to overcome it as an antiracist, so this book also makes good sense because it deals a lot with racism as a sub-text for going to war. The motivational theme given for this giant paperback, published by Penguin Books, is hate.

I chose Nathaniel Hawthorne’s colonial text to continue my exploration of sub-themes related to what we could term the condemned woman. It is also a follow-up to my re-reading of Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders. I am using these and other texts as part of my research for a manuscript that I have been working on for ages. I have given the manuscript the working title of A Better Life. My manuscript is also something of an intertextual trip.

Hawthorne’s book of course is none other than The Scarlet Letter. Now, as to why I picked out Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews in the first place, I initially could not quite recall. Nevertheless, I do think it has something to do with maintaining my reading discipline as well as satisfying my greed for books. Finally, I am in the literary process of preparing a treat for some of my regular readers who, like me, are avid fans of South African-born literary maestro, JM Coetzee.

But before I close this online essay off with a brief introduction to the literary essays, let me introduce you to one of the finest biographers I have ever encountered. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to the late Professor JC Kannemeyer. One of his marvellous bios was of none other than the perceptively elusive Coetzee. As you read through JM Coetzee, A Life in Writing, you learn that the master of the allegory was anything but. Now, for scholars of Coetzee’s work, Derek Attridge needs little to no introduction.

I’m working my way through his literary essays collected under the title of JM Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading, Literature in the Event. So too Jane Poyner’s JM Coetzee and the Idea of the Public Intellectual. My motivations for re-reading these texts form part of my preparation for a later blog article called JM Coetzee and the Problem of Sex. Do stick around for that and thank you for spending time with me in my ‘public library’.

Welcome to the Planet of the Apes

POTUS. Or CIC, however way ‘patriotic’ Americans chose to label their President, finally got it.

Yup! Towards the end of last year, on the eve of the US Presidential election, outgoing US President, Donald J Trump tested positive for the novel coronavirus. So too, his migrant wife, Melania. This after many months of denialism, stubbornness and basically unpatriotic behaviour, going as far as giving encouragement to ignorant Americans to fear nothing.

And not wear face masks. And not keep a safe distance.

But do carry a weapon. Lots of weapons, actually. So then, if you have nothing to fear, why carry a firearm, right? At any rate, Trump never read one of the greatest ever quotes from any former US President. Because apparently, he does not read. He does not write either. Never mind his previous books, particularly the Art of the Deal, these were ghost written. Professional full-time and part time writers may or may not wish to agree.

Being a ghost writer can be one of the most challenging, most debilitating assignments of the lot. But writers need to eat. And they are close to the bottom of the media and communications food-chain at the moment. Ask Jeff Bezos and he will fill you in on why that is so. One of the reasons may have to do with people in general not reading enough, if they read at all. Greatest ever quotes. Well, let’s make it too then.

“The only thing to fear is fear itself.”

Franklin D Roosevelt

He was a four-term Democrat US President who oversaw the country’s recovery from the Great Depression, and, alongside British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill and Soviet dictator, Josef Stalin, he oversaw the world’s triumph against fascism. 

And;

“Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.”

John F Kennedy.

He was a one-term Democrat US President who, in actual fact, did not complete his first term of office due to his assassination. But alongside of his younger brother, Robert Kennedy, Democrat US Attorney General, he oversaw a range of laws that were going to bring legalised equality to the country’s African Americans. While he apologised to the nation for his bungling of the so-called Bay of Pigs fiasco, he brought the world back from the brink of nuclear annihilation.

A leader takes full responsibility for mistakes made. A leader is brave. A narcissist blames all others. A narcissist is the ultimate coward.

The slain president and President-elect have something in common. They are Roman Catholics. I gather that Trump never read these PATRIOTIC quotes. All you need do is reflect on the past four years. He, I gather, will NOT be reading his predecessor’s nostalgic tome, A Promised Land. Apart from not being a reader, he loathes former (two-term) Democrat President Barack H Obama. He shredded pretty much every piece of legislation that the former president put together to help make America GREAT.

While Obama issued an executive order in lieu of equal rights for all minorities, including transgendered women, at State and Federal institutions, Trump proceeded to build a wall along the Mexican border, wasting millions in taxpayers’ money that could have been put to good use during the COVID pandemic. And he also took a toxic dump on Obama’s climate change reforms and pulled the country out of the Climate Change Accord.

(I will be publishing blog articles at a later time entitled; Morons, Statesmen and Definitions, The Statue of Liberty Must Fall, and CLIMATE CHANGE!. They are interrelated to this blog article, so do look out for those.)

Obama, by the way, is a beautifully intellectual and eloquent writer. Like me, he also writes from the heart.

Former Republican US President, Abram Lincoln, had fears. But reluctantly attended a theatre performance at the end of the calamitous US Civil War. And he was assassinated by a mad-cap right-wing protester. His earliest predecessor, the founding President of the American nation, George Washington, was scared shitless. While city citizens were dropping like flies, he and his cohorts fled the nation’s then capital, Philadelphia, and ran for their lives to escape what was known then as the Yellow Fever.

Much earlier last year, I posted a Facebook teaser, at that time, wondering what response I’d get. Likes. Thanks. It was a curious thought. I was looking for answers. I could not help thinking how prophetic some of the great movies over the years turned out to be. The one that sticks out for me is The Planet of the Apes. I could never get that image out of my mind. There’s this scene. It’s the opening scenes to The Planet of the Apes. Charlton Heston, the world’s future Millennium Man – in later years to be epitomised by Will Smith in I Am Legend – steps out of his makeshift spacecraft, one that would have done Major Tom proud.

I wanted to know whether Donald Trump and Lincoln had things in common.

And in later years still, after he had taken his ham-acting mask off, Heston was doing his country proud as the proverbial chairman of the board, chairman of the National Rifle Association in fact. Proud record this. Not only did this old man get to pretend that he was maiming and killing people, he actual got to do so. Because under his watch, how many innocent kids have died as a result of this country’s spurious gun control laws which said that every citizen has the right to own a firearm.

Donald Trump told his patriots to ‘fear nothing’. But held on tightly to those gun control laws.

He wanted to reverse the policies put into place by his predecessor, Barack H Obama, to reform these gun laws so that every kid in America could finally be safe in school. Obama also made strides in terms of making the world a safer place for us all to live in. Indeed, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for that. And only last year, it was Vladimir Putin who affirmed that curbing the number of nuclear weapons in these two great (?) countries’ arsenals would be feasible.

Or did he lie about that? But not Trump. He wanted to build more nukes.

So, it’s no wonder that tin-pot North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un is throwing all his toys out of the cot in declaring that he and his minions need to enlarge their nuclear weapons arsenal to protect themselves from their ‘clear and present danger’ the USA. This after Trump met the little evil man no less than three times during his reign of terror, endeavouring to twist his arm to reduce the nuclear weapons stockpiles.

While Trump built more.

Trump also wanted to reverse every great stride made in curbing and reducing the calamitous effects that global warming and climate change is having on the world. But thank God for President-elect Biden. Obama’s climate change reforms are back on the Oval Office desk. And Mr. Trump, I made a bet last year that this would happen. The USA would re-join the Climate Change Accord. Better late than never?

I pray to God that this much is true.

Donald Trump lied to his gullible supporters that he had a plan to make America great again. He believes in clean coal, whatever that may mean. But under his watch, the country has endured the highest death rates, never mind infections, as a result of the novel coronavirus. Welcome to the Planet of the Apes, chaps. Go get your guns ready. Because we’re all going hunting. Or shooting kids, Muslims too.

We can do this because after all, even our president said it; we’re ‘fine people’.

And while white men get to go hunting over the weekend to kill every last damn moose or bear they can find, that’s only if they can find them (extinction rates, you see), their good, decent law enforcement officers are gunning down kids too.

Not just any kids, mind you. Black kids. Black Lives Matter. I don’t give a damn what you think. I’m an antiracist. Not a non-racist, an antiracist, there’s a huge difference. Read Ibram Kendi’s bestselling book, How to be an Antiracist, if you don’t believe me, or if you want to make a difference. Anyways, back to the Planet of the Apes. Heston, the monkey actor, is walking confusedly across the beach, wondering where the hell he is, and there she is.

The shredded, tattered, chipped to bits bust of the Statue of Liberty. Buried deep in the sand. And so too, to the question I asked in that Facebook teaser. I asked whether or not outgoing US President Donald Trump and legendary Civil War president Abram Lincoln had something in common. But I could not wait. So, I argued. Trump and Lincoln do have things in common. But will history books record this much?

That the maverick businessman and vaudeville attorney at law do indeed have things in common.

But before casting these two men aside as exceptions, no, that would not be fair. Note this. Since the US Declaration of Independence, it has pretty much been the legacy of every single elected president of the United States of America, whether he was popularly elected by the people, for the people (I beg to differ, but just saying), or whether he was elected through one of the most devious institutional inventions to basically keep said people in their place, the Electoral College.

Or through the most dubious and blood-curdling means, such as was the case at the turn of the millennium when the Bush family were freely and easily helped on their way to control the White House by their willing co-conspirators, from alt-right neo-conservatives (they made Trump’s main man, Steve Bannon, look like a rank amateur) to money-grabbing Congressmen, and women too, didn’t matter which party they represented.

Because it sure as hell wasn’t the people of America.

More questions for you then. What did Abraham Lincoln really think about the slaves back then? It’s pretty well-known today what Trump thinks of today’s minorities and migrants. He tried building walls for them, remember? I could not foresee Lincoln handling the current COVID-19 crisis any better than Trump today. Indeed, long before the war, there was the first epidemic. And the Yellow Fever had the great (?) Washington and his aides scurrying from Philadelphia with their tails between their legs instead. Remember that too?

No wait, you didn’t read your history books as closely as you should have, if you read them at all.

And don’t shoot the messenger. I’m showing, not telling, is all.

Supporters within the red states notwithstanding, lamentations continue to do the rounds that Trump is the worst US president. Ever. All one has to do is turn to any respectable journal or newsprint. It’s not fake news. It’s all there. New York Times, the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune. Time Magazine’s sweeping statements on Trump’s legacy thus far are well worth a read. But now, here’s a curious thought. Abraham Lincoln has, in places, been hailed as your country’s greatest president.

Ever. How is this possible? Think about this for a second. Many of you had been led to believe that Lincoln was a strong advocate for one of the earliest Black Lives Matter campaigns. He cared about the slaves and he wanted to free them. Actually, he despised ‘blacks’, negroes, African-Americans, whatever words you wish to use to racially categorize your ancestors. I’m not one to point fingers, it’s not my place to judge. But you can judge. Do Trump and Lincoln have things in common?

Yes.

Greed.

And a lust for money.

Another thing they had in common? Simply put; they were bigots, racists in other words. Rumour has it that Trump’s a misogynist as well. Face facts folks. On the occasion of your new president’s inauguration. The US Civil War was not about freeing the slaves. It was economics, pure and simple. And yes, Trump has been to war, war with the Chinese, war with the Koreans, war with the Iranians – all is well, remember that tweet? – war with the Palestinians.

And war with the virus. Instead of fighting it rationally, he cut funding to the WHO. Instead of working towards long-term solutions, he indulged in lengthy diatribes and accusations. And he had plenty ‘a time for whoring. Yup, ‘is right, red belters, he whored for your votes.

And yet still you went and voted for the man AGAIN. Now, had he won another four years fairly, squarely and legally to ass-fuck you all over again, you would be able to hear the howling if, say, you happened to be ‘Biden-ing’ your time in Gotham City. You would have heard the Joker accusing you all over again;

You get what you fucking deserve!!

Lincoln needed the war because he was looking Westward-Ho. He needed the Civil War to conquer the West. And to do that, he had to conquer the South as well. That the slaves just happened to be in the right place at the right time for his constituents was now just as well. Needless to say that as Commander in Chief, Abram Lincoln oversaw one of the bloodiest periods in America’s history. There’ve been quite a few others as well.

Now Trump may argue otherwise. He’s no man o’ war. He could have fooled me. Or you? Trade wars with the Chinese, although it has to be said that they aren’t entirely blameless either. And then there is this. You couldn’t have chosen a better president to lead you through one of the worst crises, if not, the worst crisis of the twenty-first century. COVID-19! Instead of trying to find workable solutions to this pandemic that has to date killed over three-hundred thousand Americans, what does this man do?

He cuts funding to critical organizations as high as the WHO. He continues to wrap the Chinese over the knuckles. Again, not that they’re entirely blameless. Resultantly and all of which, Donald Trump now shares something else in common with the great Abe Lincoln. Blood on his hands! Blood on their hands. But then again, which US president doesn’t have blood on his hands? Not even peacenik Carter or our man Obama can be spared.

Just ask Truman. In the event of making a difficult decision, he lamented.

“The buck stops here.”

The most difficult job in the world. Blood on his hands.

That of thousands of Japanese civilians.

Koreans, Vietnamese, Africans. And Filipinos.

Years later, as the dust began to settle where the towers of the new Jerusalem once stood, Bush Jnr comically lifted aspects of Churchill’s World War speeches to rally troops and bewildered civilians to destroy an axis of evil.

Blood on his hands.

Thousands.

No, this has been a little different. And yet. They dithered. They swindled. Their pens twitched. History may recall that they had the blood of their own people on their hands. And in God they still Trust? Long before your forefathers declared independence from the British and lifted aspects of John Stuart Mill’s philosophy on equality, opportunity and prosperity for all by excluding the slaves from that equation, they murdered thousands of native Americans, men, women and children all.

And so I say to you all. Welcome to the Planet of the Apes. Coming to a town hall near you. Don’t blame the virus. Blame yourself.

Sex and the Transwoman

Ask Janet Mock.

You could ask Samantha.

But then again, the thought merely crossed her mind.

You see, the thing is; life is just so hard at times. Putting food on the table just once or twice a week is a mission.

And it is more than just supporting a family of five. Or six. Or eight. The transgendered woman, from a young age, has needs that are unique to others, both women and men.

At the earliest age, she has to deal with her physical condition. She is still a child and as a child must deal with this reality. That the body that she is born with is so unlike that of her mind.

She is conflicted as her true gender identity remains hidden. Or at least that is the case for young ‘boys’ whose countries’ regimes and cultural and/or religious expectations blatantly or stubbornly refuse to acknowledge a lived reality.

Ibram X Kendi, in his controversial but meritorious How to be An Antiracist, remarked that black transgendered women are the MOST MARGINALIZED of all classes of people in the multicultural, multi-ethnic and economically diverse USA.

I found this recollection quite shocking. Perhaps I was naïve in the past to expect more from this country, but recent years have shown up this country rather badly. I had to wonder. If it is as bad as this for transgendered women in the States, how much worse could it be elsewhere in the world.

It turns out that it is extremely bad. But there is good too. I site three examples; two from Africa and one from Southeast Asia, not far from mainland China, Japan and of course, the Antipodes. This latter stretch of land is important because it is in Australia that strides are being made in behalf of transgendered men and women.

Samantha’s passport is ready, by the way.

And I always ask her; wh-wh-why? Well, she is still taking the matter of emigrating to another country quite seriously. Like Australia. Why? Well, it is like this; the country she is resident in has amongst the most repressive and backward laws in regard to transgendered men and women. It is peculiar for an island-nation like the Philippines owing to the remarkably high numbers of transgendered women in that country.

I will be spending time on that country’s rather repressive laws that challenge the human rights of transgendered people in a later blog post. For now though, let’s spend some time in Australia, Uganda and my home country, South Africa.

Janet Mock & the USA

But let me begin by introducing you to an icon of the LGBTQI+ community, more specifically all those who identify as transgendered, as well as those who love and support them. What prompted me to include Janet Mock in this online essay? Well, just the other day, we were just toying around with bits and pieces threads of conversation.

Yeah, we were having a light moment. At long last. I asked her about her favourite inspirations in life. As it turns out, Samantha is growing rather fond of my old Aunty Cher. She also finds Ellen de Generes rather hilarious at times in spite of the tragedies that the comedienne has had to put up with. And while Samantha is a huge admirer of Ms Geena Rocero, my interest in Janet Mock and her work continues to grow.

By now, Hawaiian-born Janet Mock needs little introduction. But for the uninitiated, I wish to mention a critical time in this woman’s life. It is in line with this blog article’s theme; how hard life can be for transgendered women. Like fellow-Hawaiian, President Barack Obama, Ms Mock is biracial.

Her father is of African-American descent. While her mother is part-Portuguese, part native-Hawaiian. Janet Mock is not merely a celebrity of global proportions. She’s also a well-educated woman. She holds a BA in Fashion Merchandising and an MA in Journalism from NYU. But how? And how does this remarkable woman get to look as good as she does, so close to forty?

Janet Mock began her physical transition as a high school freshman. But she funded this expensive enterprise working as a sex worker. Ms Mock trekked all the way to neighbouring Thailand to undergo gender confirming surgery.

As a writer, one of the attractions for me is Ms Mock’s publishing work. One of her ground-breaking texts is that of Redefining Realness. It is a book in which she talks extensively about her life as a trans-woman but more specifically about trans issues.

Sadly, for a country like the United States, not much progress has been made in favour of transgendered men and women in terms of allowing them to enjoy Constitutional rights on a par with the country’s cisgender men and women. So far and as late as last year, only one ruling has been made by the US Supreme Court. Other than that laws and jurisdictional rulings tend to differ from state to state.

While the federal rules do appear archaic and cumbersome, at least fair recognition is being given to transgender people’s legal or legally desired identities. For instance, some states will want to assess progress made in psychological and hormone therapy. But then there are those states that still require sex reassignment surgery as a pre-requisite of gaining gender recognition. But at the time of writing this blog post, the US Congress has been rather laggard in terms of safeguarding transgendered people from all forms of discrimination.

Indeed, it was required of former US President Barack Obama to issue an executive order to remove all forms of discrimination against transgender people employed by the US government and its contractors. And during his successful campaign to replace Donald Trump as President, President-elect Joe Biden undertook to roll back the years as it were in signing into law all the equalizing laws that were left to gather dust during the chaotic Trump years.

Australia

It is fortuitous for Samantha and numerous other transpinays that Australia is so close to the Philippines. It has to be said that Australia stands out in terms of giving legal recognition and protection. Needless to say that gender recognition registrations will vary from state to state and in certain cases, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth. But the fact remains, it may require nothing more than a confirmation letter from a treating medical specialist to pave the way for legal gender assignment.

If required or desired, gender reassignment surgery is readily available in Australia. Not only that, those in lower-income brackets have access to this form of surgery through the country’s nation-wide Medicare public health scheme. It is something akin to Obama’s Obamacare, a work still in progress, given Trump’s efforts to remove it from the statute books. And interestingly enough, the use of puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy no longer needs interventions from the courts.

But that is under the condition that there are no underlying disputes between a child and his/her parents.

Uganda

Those who identify themselves within the LGBT band are in the minority. Observing the plight of the Ugandan people from this distance is bitter and ironic. Moral outrage from abroad has seen to it that much-needed aid is not being sent to them. It is just as well because it is bound to reach the wrong hands. You thought being gay or lesbian was bad? You could even try out for being straight. Because indulge in oral and/or anal sex and you could be sent to prison for life after being caught in flagrante delicto. 

Otherwise, homosexual practices are illegal in this country. Those found guilty of what is being termed as ‘aggravated homosexuality’ in terms of the country’s repressive laws could face life imprisonment. That was seven, eight years ago at the time of publishing this blog article. Or is it more? Anyway, it was only much later that that draconian law was thankfully annulled. But to the present day, LGBTQI+ people continue to face severe discrimination from all or most sectors of society within Uganda.

Needless to say that to this day, same sex marriage is not permitted in this country.

South Africa

Right, so on to the country of my birth. While I have ambitions of settling in the Philippines on a semi-permanent basis with the Love of my life, I did broach this subject with Samantha a week or so ago. I remarked to her that it would work immeasurably in her favour if she applied for South African citizenship. Because one of her biggest concerns remains that of achieving formal recognition for her gender.

In terms of the South African Constitution, that is now possible. Needless to say that there are a few checks and balances to be followed, and I dare say that Samantha would be quite okay with that, given what she and her sisters have had to put up with in the Philippines. It turns out that Samantha would be eligible for gender marker alteration because she has already been exposed to medical treatment in the form of hormone replacement therapy.

There is every prospect of fair treatment in the sense that afflicted men and women can receive confirmed support from medical practitioners specially sanctioned to provide surgical treatment and/or associated medical treatment which should also include psychological evaluations if needs be. Samantha will be happy to know that at the bare minimum all that would be required of her is confirmation of her HRT.

But as this blog article winds down to its close, it is at this point that I wish to make a critical observation unique to this country that I was born in and still reside in for the time being. While it has been said to me before and to those bold enough to have already left this country’s shores, I could have said it to Samantha as well. The grass is not always greener on the other side.

Say now that I head off to the Philippines instead? Would there be better opportunities for us as a business-oriented couple? Samantha essentially regards herself as family-oriented, by the way. Samantha and I have a variety of mutual interests and talents in mind. From my humble side, I would have publishing and promotional work in mind, while Samantha might wish to focus more on catering, gardening and interior decorating but not entirely setting aside her gift for makeup art.

The fact of the matter remains this. While employment equity legislation generally favours all minorities, including transgender men and women, the country’s legislative paperwork has been subject to primarily racial abuse. Accusations of structural racism and prejudice continue to do the rounds. And it is usually only those with the financial muscle or influence who are able to challenge this country’s high rates of structural and institutional abuse in the country.

But I refuse to be drawn into a bleak story ending. Just after the dawn of the new year – 2021 – I remarked to my folks that God ultimately does recognise the needs and desires of those who believe in him and love him. And of course, one of the best ways to do this is by way of serving your neighbour as best as you can, even if it means keeping a safe distance under the current circumstances. Also note that former US President John F Kennedy’s proclamation kind of makes sense to me;

‘Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.’

But which one?