Injustice Anywhere...

The other day, I was listening to a local radio station, and heard the tail end of some comments related to the transgender bathroom issue and the recent guidelines from the Obama administration. The conversation made reference to a post at the station's Facebook page, and after taking a look it became clear that the radio personality had expressed her opposition to President Obama's support for the transgendered population. I generally ignore Facebook posts that I disagree with, mainly because I've never known much good to come out of battling comments, but I decided to respond and posted the following:

Disappointing when we as Black folks are unable to translate the discrimination we've faced in a way that lets us better understand other marginalized groups, whether that be women, immigrants, LGBT or others. Much of the language that conservatives are using against this is the same language that was used to oppose integration, and the same states hollering about states rights on this issue are the same states that wish WE were never allowed in the bathrooms. Yes, all students need to be protected, but the "threat" that conservatives are raising about bathroom predators are about as legitimate as the voting fraud that they said was driving the need for voter ID. This is what they do...they create propaganda that speaks to people's darkest fears in order to justify discrimination. If a pedophile wants to dress like the opposite sex to sneak into the opposite bathroom guess what--they could do that TODAY regardless of policy changes. Nothing the Obama administration is suggesting makes that any more likely, but the people who think he never should have been president want us to believe otherwise. Please don't fall for it.

To view the original post, and some of the other comments, go here. Warning, although there are several supportive and encouraging comments, please don't visit if you have a low tolerance for ignorance.

I have a serious concern that this issue could be used to tap into religiously conservative people of color, the same way that gay marriage was used as a wedge issue by the Bush campaign to increase his share of Black voters to 10% (and even higher for Latino voters). A similar increase this year would be disastrous. It's up to us who know better to nip this propaganda in the bud before it reaches a dangerous level.

I'm Cliff, and on that "note"...