“I argue that legal equality has failed resistance movements aimed at transforming material conditions of violence, and that trans activists should take a decidedly different approach.” ShouldDifferentViolenceConditionsMovementMaterialsApproachArguingResistanceActivistTransformingTransDifferent Approach Author:Dean Spade
“Critical Race Theory offers of discrimination frameworks as ways of understanding and eradicating racism. The focus on "discrimination" as the way to understand racism in the US has meant that racism is considered a question of discriminatory intentions - whether or not somebody intentionally left someone out or did something harmful because of their biased feelings about a person's race. This focus on individual racists with bad ideas hides the reality that racism exists wherever conditions of racialized maldistribution exist.” WayPersonsIdeasFeelingsRealityIndividualLeftUnderstandingRaceFocusConditionsTheoryOffersRacismIntentionCriticalDiscriminationRacistFrameworkBad IdeasBiased Author:Dean Spade
“Law reforms in the US, ostensibly enacted to prohibit racism, have proven ineffective because they focus on bad intentions of individuals and fail to comprehend population-level conditions.” LawIndividualLevelsFocusFailingConditionsRacismIntentionPopulationReformProvenBad Intentions Author:Dean Spade
“I am arguing that it is a mistake for trans activists to focus our resources and attention on winning inclusion in legal equality frameworks, such as anti-discrimination laws and hate crimes laws, that will not provide relief from the life-shortening conditions trans populations are facing. Winning legal equality - getting the law to cast us as victims of discrimination who the state will protect - will not support our survival.” StatesLawHateWinningAttentionMistakeSupportFocusConditionsCrimeProtectSurvivalResourcesVictimCastsPopulationArguingDiscriminationReliefActivistInclusionFrameworkTransHate CrimeAnti Discrimination Author:Dean Spade
“Critical Race Theory offers a critique of how law and certain law reform strategies misunderstand the actual operation of life-shortening state violence, and how that has produced a set of reforms that fail to actually transform material conditions of white supremacy. These critiques redirect our attention to the conditions we aim to transform.” StatesLawCertainWhiteRaceAttentionViolenceFailingConditionsMaterialsTheoryOffersAimStrategyCriticalReformOperationsWhite SupremacyCritiqueSupremacy Author:Dean Spade
“Legal reform organizations are usually trying to portray their constituents as "hard workers," as "not criminals," as citizens, as part of normative family arrangements, and as conforming to white norms as much as possible. When these strategies are used, the most dangerous conditions and the people who are most vulnerable cannot be discussed or addressed.” PeopleTryingHardUsedWhiteConditionsDangerousHard WorkCitizensOrganizationStrategyWorkersCriminalsVulnerableReformArrangementsConformNormConstituentsHard Worker Author:Dean Spade
“Legal reform has significant dangers: changing only the window-dressing of harmful systems but leaving the violence of the systems in tact, failing to provide actual relief for those facing the worst conditions, and legitimizing or expanding systems of harm.” ViolenceFailingWorstConditionsDangerWindowLeavingHarmSignificantReformReliefDressingsExpandingTactWindow Dressing Author:Dean Spade
“We should understand that in the context of the US, where our legal system is based in settler colonialism, capitalism and white supremacy, changing laws will never sufficiently change the conditions of harm and violence our movements seek to transform.” ShouldLawWhiteViolenceConditionsMovementCapitalismHarmColonialismWhite SupremacySupremacyLegal SystemSettlers Author:Dean Spade
“Because my graduate academic training at law school was not one that included most of the intellectual traditions I find useful for understanding the conditions and problems that most concern me - anti-colonial theories, Foucault, critical disability studies, prison studies and the like are rarely seen in standard US Law School curricula, where students are still fighting on many campuses to get a single class on race or poverty offered - I developed most of my thinking about these topics through activist reading groups and collaborative writing projects with other activist scholars.” ThinkingWritingStillsProblemSchoolLawFightingReadingUnderstandingRaceClassPovertyStudyGroupsConditionsStudentsTheoryProjectsIntellectualTrainingStandardsConcernTraditionPrisonCriticalActivistDisabilityGraduatesAcademicScholarTopicsCampusLaw SchoolFighting On Author:Dean Spade
“There are sharply different, competing models of what trans advocacy looks like - those that seek to follow the path laid out by the most visible and well-funded lesbian and gay rights organizations in the US and those that seek to use grassroots strategies, center issues of race and poverty, and aim to dismantle harmful institutions and conditions to redistribute life chances.” WellsLooksDifferentUseChanceRacePovertyPathIssuesRightsConditionsGayModelsOrganizationAimInstitutionsStrategyVisibleCompetingTransGay RightsAdvocacyGrassroots Author:Dean Spade
“It feels like every person is using their whole brain and heart to figure out these nearly impossible dilemmas about how we do our work, with our principles, in the current conditions. And it feels like the thing we know to be true about working collectively - that we have better ideas together than we do individually.” KnowsFeelsHeartPersonsIdeasWholeTogetherBrainPrinciplesImpossibleConditionsFiguresCurrentsBeing TrueDilemmaHeart And Brain Author:Dean Spade
