So after watching Lana Wachowski’s Trans100 speech, I felt the need to share my thoughts in an attempt to explain how I interpreted the meaning behind her message. Bare with me here, sometimes I tend to ramble too much.

I can see why some people may have thought the second half of Lana’s speech came off as racist (most of what she says after the 2:29 mark can be questionable, depending on how you look at it), but I have to admit that I can definitely see the other side of the argument here.

Please, hear me out (& discuss if you would like):

In my opinion, I think that the context in which a few of these statements were made is a bit construed, which unfortunately allowed the opportunity for Lana to sound racist in the eyes of some individuals. Even I was guilty of judging the speech as soon as I heard it, but after thinking about it & listening again, I understood it on a whole different level. I believe that she was trying (but may have failed in the eyes of some individuals) to touch on the struggles of the Civil Rights past in relation to the current struggles that the LGBTQ community faces now. I felt like she was hinting at the idea that history may be repeating itself in a way & I wholeheartedly believe that she was trying to help abolish racism/prejudice, not condone it.

The first comment Lana makes about race is when she mentions that some African American people she knows would vote, without hesitation, against the transgender community in order to restrict them from using gender-affiliated restrooms. She goes on to say how she couldn’t understand why they would make the decision to do that when they were faced with the same exact discrimination not too long ago. But instead, it might have been interpreted by some that she was attacking the race as a whole. This is unfortunate because in the grand scheme of things I think that she was actually trying to express her confusion as to why a few individuals who belong to a race that struggled immensely in the not so distant past, could turn around and treat the trans community the same exact way. I didn’t feel like she was lumping African Americans into one single group, but instead was just pointing out that a few African Americans she knows still behave in this manner. Unfortunately, she didn’t do a very good job at phrasing this in a way that everyone could easily understand and because of this, the tension in the room started to get thick.

She then goes on to say that racism is a language that is taught from a very young age. In the past when a person of color would try and conform to “being white” (only because this is what the community expected of them), they would use the same exact language that their attackers were using because it was instilled into the very essence of the society they grew up in. The point she was trying to make is that no matter what end of the debate you are on, everyone is still using the same exact language. Phrases like “I like my separate bathroom” or “I like this segregation”, are only embodied because society forces this idea on the community & conditions everyone to believe this is the right way to think. Lana was basically trying to say that the issue of race and discrimination is NOT one sided, and that everyone has been guilty of allowing this language to be used, victim or not, because it was instilled in them by past generations & thought to be normal. To go even further, she was TRYING to say that using this language is not okay & that we must break the cycle, but her point didn’t come across all that well, causing some audience members to have an opposite interpretation from the opinion that Lana was really trying to express. I’ve seen so many comments out there stating that this part of her speech was actually blaming black people as a whole for allowing the usage of this “language” thus participating in the same act of racism their own people suffered through… but what a biased conclusion that is to come to! I felt that Lana was actually saying the opposite: this language shouldn’t be used period, by anyone, and I understood this part of her speech as expressing exactly that: racism/prejudice goes both ways & it needs to stop.

I felt like Lana was trying to remind the audience about how during this horrible time in history (before the success of the Civil Rights movement) African Americans felt forced into conforming to “white standards” because society would force this conformity on them (just like society is trying to force conformity on the LGBTQ community now). Being white was looked at as being “privileged” because society forced this idea on the human race (I don’t believe these are Lana’s current feelings on being Caucasian in modern times, but rather what society as a whole believed in the past. Unfortunately, I don’t think she did a very good job at clarifying this). However, I really think that the message she was trying to convey here is that it is perfectly okay & quite beautiful to be born black, just as it is perfectly okay & quite beautiful to be born trans. But disappointingly, her message became a bit muddled with her word choices & phrasing. She didn’t get her point across, making the tension in the room get even thicker.

I think she made the mistake of not blatantly voicing her opinion on the race topic, but rather just implied her opposing feelings to the audience expecting them to understand (but it sounds like some of them just didn’t get it & they started to call her racist). Maybe she should have been a bit more clear & careful with her words, but I totally get what she was trying to say: Do not value one kind of human being over another, & stop using this “language” all together.

The end of Lana’s speech really brings this opinion home. At 2:34, she says something important which really sums up the entire speech, expressing how she truly feels about this subject in one small statement:

She says:

“But here’s what makes our tribe [the LGBTQ community] special: we are the one tribe that is a part of every tribe.”

Meaning that if you are part of the LGBTQ community, you could also be white, black, latino, male, female, etc (or part of another tribe, rather), and that the LGBTQ tribe as a whole is universal. Basically she is saying: we are all in this together, which is a quite beautiful sentiment & something I strongly agree with. So if Lana was indeed a racist, wouldn’t this one statement be a bit contradictory? This further proves to me that the point she was trying to make came from a good place and that she didn’t mean to offend, whatsoever.

I can understand how parts of her speech came off a bit racist to some individuals. To be honest, it did make me cringe a bit when I first heard it. But once I re-watched, I began to understand what she was saying on a deeper level. Maybe I cringed because society has also forced this “language” upon me, making the topic of conversation immediately tainted or standoffish. But in the attempt to understand Lana Wachowski even further, I simply cleared my mind & re-watched the speech, finding her words to be quite charming & genuine.

It makes me sad because Lana is a wonderful advocate and role model for the trans community & it upsets me to think she will be discredited because of her poor choice in words. I will continue to support her without question (btw, Sense8 is my all time favorite show ever. I am Sense8 TRASH!) and I can only hope that people strive to understand her the way that I did. If I didn’t take the time to sit down and really think about what she said, or how I truly thought about it, then I may have been guilty of conformity myself (and oh God, never that!). My one hope is that others try and understand where she was coming from as well.



We love you Lana, stay amazing!