Ain't I trans and woman? Representing the everyday Black trans fugitive navigating belonging and resistance

Abstract

This thesis aimed to answer the question how Kokomo City as documentary discursively depict the everyday experiences of Black trans women, specifically those involved in sex work, and the emerging narratives of everyday negotiations of belonging within the Black community in the United States (US). An intersectional lens is applied to understand how gender, sexuality, race, and class intersect in shaping these processes. The often binary representations of Black trans women as either victims of violence, or successful and empowered in media, and oftentimes still in academia, gives rise to the significance of this research. I employed a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) through with I discovered that sex work through their desired Black trans feminine body is a secret, liminal, in-between space where the four Black trans women renegotiate their belonging in a broader context of transphobia within the Black community. Additionally, they navigate their belonging further through fugitive acts and fugitive thinking by claiming their Black trans feminine identity and through imagining another reality of them in the Black community. In this sense, fugitivity is part of belonging. In the end, these narratives of belonging are not just about marginalization based on the specific position of Black trans women, or just narratives of agency, reflecting their navigation of belonging. Both aspects are intertwined and form a unique multifaceted narrative of belonging in its situated specificity. Additionally, the filmmaker aims to transform this private sense of belonging into a public one through the documentary. Kokomo City is inherently fugitive and political in its pursuit of this goal. The filmmaker employs both realist and anti-realist strategies to create a pedagogical intervention by presenting the wider Black community with the stories of these Black trans women.