Right now I am trying to meaningfully write about the proposed changes to the ACF - Administration for Children & Families written in Pr*ject 2025. I have found it difficult to articulate how often misogynoir is at the root of policy changes that specifically target the broader trans community. The hatred of Black people and specifically Black women specifically has been a driver for government policy, the paradigms in Pr*ject 2025 are a recapitulation of what we already know. I do not believe you can or should fight for trans rights without fighting against anti-Blackness. They have always intersected.

As Spillers states,

“Under these conditions, we lose at least gender difference in the outcome, and the female body and the male body become a territory of cultural and political maneuver, not at all gender-related, gender-specific. But this body, at least from the point of view of the captive community, focuses a private and particular space, at which point of convergence biological, sexual, social, cultural, linguistic, ritualistic, and psychological fortunes join. This profound intimacy of interlocking detail is disrupted, however, by externally imposed meanings and uses…”.

C Riley Snortons conversation with Spillers work, and their focus on “uncensored flesh” is what I am currently diving into so that I can better appreciate and articulate this discourse around gender fluidity, racialization, and the mechanisms of upkeeping a captive flesh via policing.

Digression aside, I  say that Project 2025s aims are a recapitulation, due to the lineages of suffering that stemmed from the transatlantic slave trade, much of which we already experience - including that which has flourished from the seemingly mundane (to non Black folks) policy changes of the 60s, 80’s, & 90’s.

Right now I am honing in on the 60’s — a time when in response to desegregation jurisdictions, particularly in the south, were attempting to creatively destabilize the Black family by instituting several new criminalization measures/tactics, ie: diminishing ADC access by deploying suitable housing & parenting requirements which were enforced by welfare workers via raids. Too many Black women on AFDC meant having to find new ways to kick them off it. The focus on waste and fraud became more prevalent and necessary to uphold the white supremacist order. Segregationist, in retaliation to the freedom rides, pushed Black women out of their cities by claiming they were lazy, aid-dependent, & draining the community. Moynihan's cementing of this discourse in “tangle of pathology” paved the way for Reagan’s obsession with Linda Taylor & the welfare-queen-dramatics-turned-full-fledge-policy-agenda. The goal was and continues to be domination of the white cis-nuclear family, & anti-Black racism drives this.

As evident in Pr*ject 2025, there is still an effort to solidify this image of what is a “healthy”, normative,  “productive” family. As this posts describes, this has been the case decades prior to Trumps second election. It has surfaced in significant ways locally. In my dissertation work I found that Los Angeles, as of 2020, has had a “red flag” warning for mothers who have a boyfriend living in their home . This red flag was suggested by the LA Civil Grand Jury. Single Black and Latine mothers in LA talk about experiencing this in real time through additional surveillance from caseworkers and even having to sit through interrogations abut their sex life — as teenagers. I have no doubt that this has been occurring throughout the country. 

But why is this all important to remember now? Because solidarity and cross movement organizing is what is going to keep us alive. Back when legislation passed in Florida to criminalize gender affirming care, making it a reportable crime by child maltreatment agency workers, caseworkers stepped up to outright refuse to comply. But once legislation started to change for the better, those caseworkers went back to business as usual, dismissing all of the presently-normative ways that they still harm of the youth in the system. It is this way because these youth are disproportionally Black. Even if they are trans, they are seen as Black first, making their suffering less critical and urgent. In 2025 we have to care about Black liberation, even when it’s not convenient.