Identity politics is a huge thing, especially now in the age of Donald Trump. Sexual, religious and racial minorities are discovering, often in very violent and dehumanising ways, that the post oppression world we have been sold is very much a lie, and the bigotries we worked so hard in the last century to leave behind has followed us into the 21st century, even as all sorts of companies tout their diversity programs.

British transgender model and activist Munroe Bergdorf found herself experiencing this first hand over the course of the last two weeks when a Twitter thread she made about systematic racism and how it implicates all white people who benefit from racism and do not speak against it, saw her fired from the widely celebrated advertising campaign for L’Oreal Paris. L’Oreal Paris, as a move towards more inclusivity in its image, created a campaign that featured all kinds of women, a gay man and Munroe Bergdorf, a trans woman. The company fired Bergdorf from its campaign after her thread went viral, tagging her argument as ‘divisive’ and bigoted and bringing her to the attention of bigots, who since then have issued thousands of death threats and ceaselessly harassed her. Bergdorf is at the unique confluence of being black, queer, trans and female and after weeks of staying silent she finally spoke on what the experience has taught her and how her queerness was weaponised against her.

It is a sobering read, but a necessary one none the less, if we are going to support the rights of trans women to speak up on matters of race and gender.

Read it here.