Also.Also.Also: Sha’Carri Richardson and the History of Respectability Politics Used Against Black Women in Sports

feature image photo by Christian Petersen / Staff via Getty Images

A very important life update is that I now have a new baby kitten, and his name is Timmy Tomato. 🍅


Queer as in F*ck You

Sha’Carri Richardson keeps outrunning her haters. In The Fastest Woman in the World Is Leaving Her Haters Behind, the 19th News looks at the long history of racism directed at Black woman in sports — especially queer Black women like Sha’Carri Richardson and Brittney Griner. Richardson is the central focus of the piece, though it touches on other sports and athletes as well as it unravels the respectability politics disproportionately leveraged against Black women who excel in sports. From the feature:

Despite the trauma she’s endured, it took her becoming the fastest woman in the world after winning the women’s 100 meter at the track and field world championships in Budapest in August to renew a skeptical public’s faith in her. And, after that feat, there’s no guarantee that she won’t continue to be subjected to the respectability politics that have long targeted Black women athletes, a pattern scholars say needs to change.

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This clip below of G Flip discussing the transphobia they experienced when the news of them dating Chrishell Stause broke is from an older episode of the SHE/HER/THEY podcast with the queer DJ KITTENS, but it hooked me enough to back-listen to some of the podcast, and it’s worth checking out! E.R. Fightmaster was a recent guest.


Saw This, Thought of You

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Political Snacks

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One More Thing

A poem for you!

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Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya is the managing editor of Autostraddle and a lesbian writer of essays, short stories, and pop culture criticism living in Orlando. She is the assistant managing editor of TriQuarterly, and her short stories appear or are forthcoming in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Joyland, Catapult, The Offing, and more. Some of her pop culture writing can be found at The A.V. Club, Vulture, The Cut, and others. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram and learn more about her work on her website.

Kayla has written 885 articles for us.

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