UPDATE: Issa Rae wrote an open response saying, “Some of our viewers may have been offended by some of the language in our recent episode. We take this matter especially to heart, considering the CFC and members of the LGBT community were among the first to embrace ‘The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.’ …In creating a series of this nature, we are willing to accept the praise when the jokes work and the feedback when they may not.” Read more here.
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Our favorite web series, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, has gotten some heat from advocates after using an anti-transgender slur in the most recent episode. A few members of the Crunk Feminist Collective (CFC), a space of support and camaraderie for hip hop generation feminists of color, wrote an open letter addressing the problematic use of the word as well as the phrase “no lesbo.”
CFC members explain:
In episode 11, CeCe calls Angelina Jolie/White Jay’s ex a “tra**y bitch in heels.” The word tra**y perpetuates violence and divisiveness amongst women by relying on the idea that trans women are not “real” women; it suggests that White Jay’s ex is somehow less than the main character J.
The word “tra**y” has a very real history of violence and discrimination, often targeting trans women. It has been used as a slur, as a way to objectify women, and as a way of denying the personhood of trans women on the basis of appearance.
We have seen your responsiveness to the fans of ABG and we hope that by raising this concern you will respond accordingly by not using such language in future episodes. There are so many awkward queer, trans, and disabled folks who love the show and it hurts to see and hear our lives used as punchlines. For those of us, the awkward black, queer folks who have lived at the intersections of our awkwardness, our blackness, and our transness, words like “tra**y” erase our lives, and our humanity. Phrases like “No lesbo” and the use of affected speech to imitate hard of hearing people detract from the vision of creating representations for the rest of us who are all too often maligned in mainstream media.
Clutch reports that after hearing about the letter, the show’s creator, Issa Rae tweeted:
Check out the episode for yourself below:
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