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Quote by Dean Spade

“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.”

Quote by Dean Spade

Author

Dean Spade, born in 1977, is a writer whose work primarily focuses on social issues such as gender, race, and class, exploring their manifestation in law, politics, and social movements. more

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“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.”

Way Persons Ideas Feelings Reality Individual Left Understanding Race Focus Conditions Theory Offers Racism Intention Critical Discrimination Racist Framework Bad Ideas Biased

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.”

Law Individual Levels Focus Failing Conditions Racism Intention Population Reform Proven Bad Intentions

Author:Dean Spade

“Legal doctrine requiring a showing of evidence of racist intent and a narrow chain of causation has made it very difficult to prove in court that a person or group is experiencing racism because the standards are too narrow and too focused on individual intentions.”

Persons Made Individual Difficult Groups Prove Racism Standards Evidence Court Intention Focused Doctrine Chains Made It Racist Causation

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.”

“Instead of focusing on what the law says about trans people, which is really what the law is saying about itself as a protector of trans people, we should be focused on what systems of law and administration do to trans people and our interventions should aim to dismantle harmful, violent systems such as criminal punishment and immigration enforcement.”

People Should Law Aim Focused Criminals Punishment Violent Immigration Administration Enforcement Intervention Trans Protector

Author:Dean Spade

“I used to live in a room full of mirrors; all I could see was me. I take my spirit and I crash my mirrors, now the whole world is here for me to see.”

World Whole Reality Used Spirit Spirituality Rooms Mirrors Clever Whole World Crash Inspirational Music

Book:Starting at Zero

Source: Starting at Zero

“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.”

States Law Certain White Race Attention Violence Failing Conditions Materials Theory Offers Aim Strategy Critical Reform Operations White Supremacy Critique Supremacy

Author:Dean Spade

“When social movements engage in legal reform, they often mobilize images of people from their constituent population who most match national norms about what "deserving citizens" are like, and use those people as spokespeople and as lead plaintiffs in legal cases. This strategy requires that people who are experiencing intersectional harm - who are vulnerable through multiple vectors of demonization and marginalization - be further marginalized and disappeared by the advocacy.”

“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.”

People Trying Hard Used White Conditions Dangerous Hard Work Citizens Organization Strategy Workers Criminals Vulnerable Reform Arrangements Conform Norm Constituents Hard Worker

Author:Dean Spade

“In addition to encouraging us to participate in narratives of "deservingness" that cast large parts of our constituencies as "undeserving," legal reform strategies encourage us to valorize harmful systems that our movements should be seeking to dismantle.”

Should Movement Strategy Casts Seeking Reform Narrative Undeserving

Author:Dean Spade