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Retelling Racialized Violence, Remaking White Innocence: The Politics of Interlocking Oppressions in Transgender Day of Remembrance

Lamble, Sarah (2008) Retelling Racialized Violence, Remaking White Innocence: The Politics of Interlocking Oppressions in Transgender Day of Remembrance. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 5 (1). pp. 24-42. ISSN 1553-6610. (doi:10.1525/srsp.2008.5.1.24) (KAR id:9391)

Abstract

Transgender Day of Remembrance has become a significant political event among those resisting violence against gender-variant persons. Commemorated in more than 250 locations worldwide, this day honors individuals who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. However, by focusing on transphobia as the definitive cause of violence, this ritual potentially obscures the ways in which hierarchies of race, class, and sexuality constitute such acts. Taking the Transgender Day of Remembrance/Remembering Our Dead project as a case study for considering the politics of memorialization, as well as tracing the narrative history of the Fred F. C. Martinez murder case in Colorado, the author argues that deracialized accounts of violence produce seemingly innocent White witnesses who can consume these spectacles of domination without confronting their own complicity in such acts. The author suggests that remembrance practices require critical rethinking if we are to confront violence in more effective ways.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1525/srsp.2008.5.1.24
Uncontrolled keywords: gender; sexuality; race; class; racism; transphobia; memorialization; narrative; activism; identity politics; intersectionality analysis; transgender politics; queer politics
Subjects: H Social Sciences
H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
J Political Science
K Law > K Law (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of English
Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Funders: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (https://ror.org/04j5jqy92)
Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (https://ror.org/051x4wh35)
Depositing User: S.R. Lamble
Date Deposited: 15 Apr 2009 12:56 UTC
Last Modified: 12 Jul 2022 10:39 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/9391 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Lamble, Sarah.

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