The video posted above is a promotional trailer for ‘Free CeCe’, a new documentary that is currently in production and that will illustrate the life of CeCe McDonald. For those of you who do not know much about her, CeCe is a transgender African American woman, who was the victim of a transphobic and racist attack, while walking down the street with a few friends in Oklahoma City. She was immediately arrested and charged with murder after killing one of her attackers in self-defense and was consequently incarcerated in a men’s state prison in Minnesota. The film will feature CeCe along with Laverne Cox, a transgender actress, as they challenge current issues with violence against trans woman of color.
The first time I heard of CeCe McDonald was actually this year, 2014, sadly enough, it was the same year as her release from a men’s correctional facility in Minnesota, a prison where she spent two years incarcerated for the aftermath of self-defense. I am someone who does my best to keep myself updated with news on a local, national, international, and political level in a variety of ways. I listen to FM news radio stations (since satellite radio isn’t afforded to the college student who survives on top ramen and easy mac), watch MOST TV news channels (notice how I capitalize “most”, because FOX News isn’t one of them), read newspapers in my local Starbucks, and of course scroll through online current events on my nifty, and very convenient Buzzfeed app. The point I am trying to make here, is that I don’t like to sit around clueless and unaware of the things happening around me. So I guess you could see why I found myself shocked, when I stumbled across a Buzzfeed article about the story of CeCe McDonald, that was published days after her release. But with that feeling of shock, were feelings of confusion and frustration. Why is it that I am only hearing about this now? Was I not paying attention? How is it that I didn’t hear or read about anything concerning CeCe McDonald during the past two years that she has been incarcerated? Where were all of these CNN television news broadcasts? Where were all of the articles? Or, was I just not looking in the right places?
To answer my own questions, I believe that there weren’t many broadcasts, online articles, or even print articles because of an unfortunate truth: the very minuscule amount of visibility for transgender women, especially transgender women of color. If I wanted to stay updated with any news from this community, along with Cece McDonald, I needed to look deeper. That is what is most frustrating about all of this, looking deeper, looking past the surface, all of this in its entirety is problematic because the media is so biased in wanting to only display media that fits our need and obssession for heteronormativity. How else will they gain their large audiences and their high ratings? With the exclusion of these trans bodies of color.
Well, thank God for documentary film-making, ‘Orange is the New Black’, and Laverne Cox.
Laverne Cox, a trans woman of color and breakout actress, plays a trans woman of color on the hit Netflix series ‘Orange is the New Black’. Her character’s story in some aspects parallels CeCe McDonald, a trans woman of color, who spent 19 months in a men’s prison. These similarities motivated the actress to co-produce a documentary that focuses on Cece McDonald, her life, incarceration, and the intersectional issues that have lead to a disproportional amount of violence against transgender women of color. This is truly a step in the right direction towards visibility and awareness of this community and their challenges they face on a daily basis. The purpose of this blog post is to spread awareness and visibility of the production of this inspiring documentary, along with the intersectional challenges that trans women of color face. My ultimate hope as I anxiously anticipate the release of this film, is that it sparks a reaction from its viewers; a reaction of shock and frustration that is very similar to my initial reaction upon first hearing about the courageous Cece McDonald. If the film can create those kind of reactions, and the audience questions the lack of visibility in mainstream media, then hopefully there is a call for a change. May that future change be the acknowledgment and awareness of the blatant violence that takes place in the community of transgender colored women along with other communities confronting intersectional issues.
Gender and All of The Above 