Pose actor Indya Moore penned a powerful poem asking those fighting for Black liberation not to be exclusionary.
Around the country, people are marching against police brutality and racism toward Black people, but many are worried that Black trans people are being left out of the conversation, according to Spectrum News 1. After a number of Black transgender women were killed in the past few weeks, as Blavity previously reported, the movement has refocused to highlight the violence trans people of color face due to the intersection of their two marginalized identities.
The 25-year-old said on Instagram that they wrote the poem in response to a Black cisgender man who said Moore was “causing harm to the black liberation movement by centering the violence black trans women are experiencing In our community.”
The poem, titled “Can I Come Too?” will be used in an upcoming YouTube series, but Moore was inspired by rapper Noname’s release of “Song 33” and felt that the world needed to hear it now.
They said the poem was “made out of my spirit, my heart, my mind, my pain, my pain, my pain, my LOVE, my anger, my hope, my desire and my future and nobody owns my voice.”
“Can I come too?" the poem begins. "Am I invited? Can I go? Can I come? Am I invited to the cookout? I’m gonna come too, I’m just worried I might get jumped, beaten or killed before I even get there."
"I know I’m trans but can I come? Can I be free too? Can I coexist in peace? And in love with us? Can the beginning of my liberation start at the end of white supremacy as well?” they went on.
In the poem, Moore questions if their transgender identity overshadows their Black identity. The Queen & Slim actor urges everyone to include transgender people in the solutions for Black liberation and asks people to take into consideration experiences that aren’t their own.
“No one called to check up on me. No one called me for my birthday. No one got called out for sexually assaulting me. No one called my name out at the rally. No one called me by my name at my funeral, so can I come? And will you spell my name right on the invite. So I’m just asking if I could come because I mean, I want to show up but no one showed up for me,” they said.
During the poem, the Bronx native mentioned 22-year-old Muhlaysia Booker, a Black transgender woman who was shot and killed in Dallas last year, a month after a video of her being assaulted was released, reported CNN. Moore also cited the 35-year life expectancy for transgender women of color, as reported by GLAAD.
“I keep trying to talk about my hopes and dreams for liberation but every time I try I am silenced and told our experiences as queer and trans folk don’t matter or don’t matter right now,” they said.
At the closing of the poem, Moore references the killings of Black transgender women at the hands of Black cisgender men.
“We are unsafe in our Blackness and we are unsafe in our transness because Black cis men and women either proclaim we don’t exist or kill us or accomplice our death because we do," Moore said. "When will be the right time for trans and queer liberation, spotlighting the overwhelmingly common anti-queer and anti-trans violence in our community must happen now and publicly because I, we, refuse to be next, to be seen and die on the waiting list and because you are a cis heterosexual Black man who refuses, actively, to see beyond his experience, perhaps out of fear."
Last year, the American Medical Association deemed the killings of trans women of color an epidemic, as Blavity previously reported.
Riah Milton, 25, was shot and killed during a robbery in Ohio on June 9. Two people have been arrested and charged for her murder, while a third has yet to be arrested, according to Time. Dominique “Rem’Mie” Fells was found dead on June 8 in Philadelphia. The 27-year-old’s death was ruled a homicide.
“I don’t want to die on the waiting list so I’m done asking can I come. I’m demanding that you come with me because our freedom begins with our freedom to be,” Moore said.
