On MSNBC, Laverne Cox says we still have “a lot of intersectional work to do” for Black trans people after Title VII ruling

Cox: “This law does not bring back to life the two transgender women who were murdered last week”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the June 15, 2020, edition of MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports

ANDREA MITCHELL (HOST): And we just want to share just how broadly this is now supported. The polling shows this as well as -- take a look at this rally. A Black Trans Lives Matter rally in Brooklyn just this past weekend. Look at that crowd. You know, it's pretty extraordinary when you see this is a large diverse crowd, as we understand it from all the people who are reporting there. But just look at the  resounding support. Things do change and this is one of the issues on which there has been more change in a shorter period of time than almost anything that we can remember. Laverne?

LAVERNE COX (ACTOR AND ACTIVIST): Absolutely. But I think it's important for folks to remember that just because public policy changes, it does not mean that the hearts and minds of Americans change. Each and every one of us has to do the work -- as hopefully we all are doing right now to interrogate the ways in which we’ve internalized racism and white supremacy and a culture that continually devalues the lives of Black people. We must also do this for the ways in which we've internalized transphobia and homophobia. It is incumbent upon each and every one of us to interrogate the ways we’ve internalized and may or may not perpetuate these systems of oppression. So that the law that now exists can go forward with justice for everyone. This law does not bring back to life the two transgender women who were murdered last week. Dominique Fells and Riah Milton. Does not bring back Tony McDade, the trans man who was murdered in Tallahassee, Florida, by police two days after George Floyd. We have to change the hearts and minds and we have a lot of intersectional work to do around racial justice [and] around economic justice in this country as well.