The Myth of the Isolated Incident

[browngirl]

A So, the reason my last post has comments disabled is this. A few years ago, someone I know questioned the need for the Transgender Day of Remembrance, saying "umpteen people die in car accidents but there's no day for remembering car accident victims." Because I have a terminal case of l'esprit de l'escalier and because I was trying not to start cursing, I didn't manage to say that [most] car accidents are not deliberate applications of violence aimed at those seen as trespassing against social norms. But, there's more going on than that.

As someone interested in a freer and more equitable society, and someone who's taken a few science classes, I keep seeing patterns around me, and one pattern I see over and over again is the myth of the isolated incident. Over and over a transgender person is attacked up to being killed and both the official investigation and many lay reactions take the assumption that the incident was a 'dispute' between parties of equal privilege and power. Over and over women are sexually harassed and assaulted and we get told both about the individual perpetrator that "he's not really like that, he made a mistake" and that there's no such thing as a culture of sexual violence, no such thing as societal patterns of excusing and exonerating those who inflict it and of citing false reports as reasons to dismiss and ignore true incidents, just a great many isolated incidents. I noticed that Mr. Zimmerman got arrested again for pointing a gun at someone again, and I can't help but think of all the people who analyzed his murder of Trayvon Martin as both an isolated 'mistake' on his part and an isolated incident on the part of US society, rather than a publicized example of the recurring nightmares of every parent of Black children. (I kind of want to go point this out to all of those people I can find. This essay is what I'm writing instead.)

The idea of the isolated incident is a way of excluding evidence and of abnegating responsibility. If there is no pattern of transphobic violence then transphobic comments and attitudes are "just opinions" rather than pebbles in the avalanche. If there is no pattern of rape culture then just hitting on that pretty girl or telling that rape joke or being sure that he didn't mean it all have absolutely nothing to do with the next perpetrator who judges that his entitlement outweighs the risks of punishment. If George Zimmerman's shooting of Trayvon Martin has nothing to do either with Zimmerman's general pattern of behavior or with the deaths of countless other unarmed Black people including Jonathan Ferrell and Renisha McBride, then it's just an isolated regrettable incident (at worst; many people think Zimmerman did society a favor) and no one has to question themselves the next time they suspect a kid of being up to no good primarily because he or she is Black.

However, if we let ourselves recognize these patterns, we can see how pulling a thread here affects the fabric over there. We can understand how responding "dude, not funny," to a transphobic joke or one about rape can help change the prevailing atmosphere to one where people don't feel as justified in attacking someone and so perhaps refrain from doing so. We can look twice and see beyond skin color to the person needing help. We can see how societal methods of change, such as education, have the possibility of doing some good.

Maybe, we can get something done, and perhaps improve things for everyone.

I don't know if I can do anything towards fighting the idea of the isolated incident by writing this little journal entry, but this is what I've seen in my life, I had to make a note of it.

Comments

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Here on this planet, there is no such thing as an isolated incident. You'd think we'd know that by now.

Well written. Thank you.

[purlewe.livejournal.com]

STANDING OVATION!

[catalana.livejournal.com]

Lovely essay and well put!

(And, damn, but people who can use "abnegating" in a sentence are sexy. *grin*)

Very well put

[redbird]

Well enough put that I am tempted to link to it, but only if you're okay with possible unwanted feedback from people you don't know. I don't think there are many people who are reading my journal and not yours and who are risky in that direction, but I don't know, and it seems unreasonable to treat this as a way of finding out, given that I'm not the one who might be attacked.

Re: Very well put

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I would be honored. :)

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Absolutely!

Also, you asked me a cogent question else post, which I'm thinking about.

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

This is extremely well put; thank you for articulating this so well. No, there is really no such thing as an isolated incident.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

I feel like this relates to the often-asked questions about why the legal system has “hate crime” as a category. “Shouldn’t ‘crime’ be sufficient?” Usually the reply is something about sending a message that attacking someone purely for their race, gender, etc, will not be tolerated; but I think on the level of the individual crime, if it’s provable that the accused not only attacked the victim, but attacked on the basis of category, rather than anything the individual did – then that attacker is *extremely* likely to strike again, and that needs to be taken into account in the sentencing.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*nod* Exactly.

[dpolicar]

My usual answer about hate crimes is that if someone beats me up in a way that singles me out as a member of a vulnerable community (queer folk, Hispanics, Jews, whatever) then they've committed two crimes... they've battered me, and they've assaulted the community, and prosecuting both crimes makes sense.

That said, yeah, there's something to be said for responding to "isolated incidents" legally in a way that takes into account the fabric of events of which they are a part. I'm not sure we know how to do that in a way that won't ultimately just be used to further abuse the powerless, but it's worth trying.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

...and the world comes into focus. Thank you.

(here via redbird)

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Well said!

[jim-p.livejournal.com]

Dismissing something as an "isolated incident" is like an experimenter throwing out data points that don't fit their preconceived theory and not noticing that they're discarding practically all of their results...

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Beautifully put. Thank you for this.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

*hug*

[spacehawk.livejournal.com]

Yes. Thank you.

Sometimes problems don't get "seen" by those with privilege and/or those who are not sensitized to it until someone is dead, which is why it's so easy to see the violence as isolated. It's the proverbial "iceberg."

Trans women and men who cross dress are very often used as a "punch line" in comedy. I hear those sorts of "jokes" all the time in very mainstream venues, and by and large society considers these jokes completely normal. But piece by piece it dehumanizes trans women and creates and environment where the violence can spread from verbal microaggressions all the way to murder.

That's what I'd say to someone who wonders what they can do to stop the violence -- stand up for trans women, and men who cross dress when they're made into jokes. Point out that it's not cool. Make a point of objecting, and turning off the television. Call out the people who said it. (I'm not referring to trans women, and men who cross dress doing comedy themselves, of course.)

I also think just like the media is biased in it's reporting of PoC, there's a bias with trans people as well (especially trans women). Purely anecdotal from my own experience, but it feels like at least half of the news coverage of trans women is when they're being arrested, or may be arrested for something. We hear about trans women as criminals. That imaging affects how people think.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Well and truly said (and I have also noticed what you describe in your last paragraph).

[spacehawk.livejournal.com]

Trans people (especially trans women) are framed as the ultimate in "subversive," which I think played into the media coverage of Chelsea Manning. Any time they can link "transgressive of gender and sexuality norms" with "subversive of the rule of law," they will.

And then it comes into the "defenses" to violence, even murder -- that trans women are "tricking women" when they use the same bathrooms (are really "men" who are using a ruse of womanhood to get into women's spaces), that trans women "lie to straight men" and "trick them" into "gay sex," so murders are both payback and a way to reestablish "masculinity" through violence. There are some who seem to see mere existence as a trans woman as an act of violence upon them, especially targeting trans women of color.

It's also important to note that in MA, there is still no public accommodations protection for trans people (bathrooms, hotels, hospitals, shelters, restaurants, public transportation...).

My two cents, anyway.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Sometimes problems don't get "seen" by those with privilege and/or those who are not sensitized to it until someone is dead, which is why it's so easy to see the violence as isolated.

One is extremely sensitive to the types of crimes one might be a victim of, and extremely insensitive to the types of crimes one might commit (or be accused of committing). You could totally reshuffle the classes and privileges of a society and that pattern won't change.

[spacehawk.livejournal.com]

You could totally reshuffle the classes and privileges of a society and that pattern won't change.

Relevance? These classes aren't "reshuffling," and I don't see any evidence that it is or even could be possible with respect to cissexual/cisgender privilege.

[wickedladybear.livejournal.com]

Many people have commented positively, so let me add my voice to the admiring chorus. It was well written, ell-thought-out and thought provoking.

These are all really lovely things, and I am very glad to have read this today.

Also, you make damn good candy, lady!

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

pebbles in the avalanche

A good analogy. And thinking about it, it ought to be possible to measure the avalanche. E.g., in the case of Transgender Day of Remembrance, what is the increased risk of attack, death, or whatever one can measure, from being TG? That ought to be quantifiable, at least roughly, and being quantified, it becomes difficult to deny.

[spacehawk.livejournal.com]

These statistics are really hard to gather, for many reasons. Many, many reasons, that I've done some research into, and won't detail here because it's LONG.

Data collection is improving, but we're a long ways off. Once we get there, then yes, it will help advocates.

[tim (from livejournal.com)]

The thing is, it doesn't have much to do with being trans as such; it has to do with living under several intersecting axes of oppression. Being trans is just one of them. And that's the problem with how TDoR is generally organized by well-off white trans women and white trans men like myself, who would like you to think that we're all at equal risk. The reality is that as a white trans man whose gender usually gets accepted without question and is in the top 10% of income earners in the US, I face (for all intents and purposes) zero risk for being trans. But good luck finding a TDoR event where anybody will mention that.

[seanchaidh.livejournal.com]

Hear hear.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

How many Lone Nuts With A Grudge do we need before we admit there's something wrong?

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, I know this isn't really your point, but, there *is* actually a day for victims of car accidents. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Day_of_Remembrance_for_Road_Traffic_Victims

It's important for two reasons. First, because car accidents aren't isolated incidents, but a constant and systemic threat from car culture and car-centric urban planning. In much of the world "driving" is a social norm and those who don't do it are at greater risk.

And second, because it lays bare the goal of the derail. People who says "A day for ___? What about ___?" never actually care about the second thing even when that thing is a real problem. Whoever told you that didn't actually think we should divert some resources from trans rights to stopping car accidents; they don't care about car accidents either, they just don't want to have to think about anything.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

This is a useful piece of information and a spot on analysis. Thank you!

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

well said!

[firecat]

Brilliant.