Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Miss Major Speaks: The Life and Times of a Black Trans Revolutionary by Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

5 reviews

warlocksarecool21's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

5.0

Miss Major Speaks is an incredible collection of interviews with Miss Major, a renowned and beloved Black trans activist since the 60s and 70s. I don’t usually say this about nonfiction, but I had so much fun reading this. Each chapter felt like you were there talking to Miss Major yourself. Her humor, passion and care was so obvious in every word she said, and in this short book I feel like I learned so much from her. It really highlights the importance of listening the elders of the trans/queer community, they’ve lived through so many things and have so much wisdom to impart with us, and so much of our history and movement would be lost without them. This book also highlights the necessity of community care and grassroots organizing to ensure any sort of progress, because the government and corporations won’t do anything. I think the most important theme of this book is the reminder that white queer people (especially if they’re cis) often need to take a step back in the movement and listen and uplift the most marginalized of our community, which are Black trans women. They were the ones at the center of it all at the time of Stonewall and the AIDS crisis yet they get left behind by the rest of the movement. Miss Major has so many significant things to say about how Black trans people not only have to experience transphobia, but also poverty, anti-Blackness and police brutality. She makes the point that our mobilization has to include the most marginalized, that their issues must be all of our issues. Our collective liberation will come from ending oppression of marginalized people everywhere in the world, not just in the US. These are just a few of the themes and messages present in this book, alongside many stories and anecdotes about Miss Major’s life. 
Through her humor and warm personality, Miss Major imparts so many lessons she’s learned over the course of her life and I highly recommend picking this up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Transphobia, Sexual violence, and Racial slurs

readingpicnic's review

5.0

I love you, Miss Major. This was such a wonderful book and gave me hope for trans* futures. I adored reading about Miss Major's perspectives on the queer and trans* communities, as well as social justice needing to start from the very bottom with grassroots projects. I recognized a lot of the events and people that she mentioned from taking LGBTQIA+ classes for my WGS minor, so I feel like this book helped me build my knowledge on queer and trans* history from the perspective of someone who was there through it all. Her point about Stonewall not being an end-all-be-all was very true, and I appreciate her bluntness and honesty about how the queer community, especially the white queer community has historically ignored, harassed, and excluded the trans* community, especially trans* people of color (like literally just watch the speech that Sylvia Rivera gave at pride where she was booed off the stage by white queer people for talking about transness). Her openness about what trans* can mean is very refreshing and doesn't exclude or require explicit labels. I also love her emphasis on community and that change has to come from within the community; that they should get to make the decisions about their own lives. She has such a distinct voice that really shines through on the page, and this was overall an incredible start to my Trans* Rights Readathon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Deadnaming

jainabee's review

adventurous funny hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

Miss Major has been every there and done every that and is still ticking and kicking ass. First hand lived experience of the last 60 years of queer history told with joyful shamelessness and tender affection. Here's a book that deserves to be on every high school history curriculum reading list.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Homophobia, Violence, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Classism, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, and Torture

Minor: Medical content and Fire/Fire injury

omx, the content warnings are just TILIFI (read the book to learn what that means). Miss Major has survived all of this and more and still the overall tone of the book is positive and hopeful.

eslsilver's review

hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia, Police brutality, and Homophobia

Minor: Racial slurs

kshertz's review

emotional informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

Miss Major is a legend. Her book is just like her documentary. She is real and speaks the truth. She doesn’t care if you can handle it or not. This woman should be as big as any other queer hero you have. This book is unapologetic just like her. I think it’s a must read for anyone who cares about queer history, queer elders or just wants a new perspective on life. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Car accident, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Biphobia, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Grief, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Hate crime, Racism, and Trafficking