You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience

Laverne Cox writes that she is used to putting on protective armor. As a trans Hollywood star, she has experienced physical and verbal abuse from the public. Cox tells a story about vulnerability. After surgery, she went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. She was anxious and she could not walk as quickly as she normally does. She was aware that her vulnerability meant that she could easily be put into danger. While leaving the pharmacy, a woman greeted her and misgendered her. This was triggering for Cox; being misgendered is usually the beginning of a violent confrontation.

Cox’s family members were no strangers to violence. Her great-grandfather was jailed for feeding his family with a dead cow he encountered on the road. He was forced into indentured servitude, and Cox’s grandfather was enslaved on a plantation for years after emancipation. Her mother was emotionally abusive. Cox looks at her ancestors with understanding and compassion. She sees how the damage that was caused to them by white supremacy led them to hurt others. Even Cox finds herself struggling with internalized transphobia. Cox argues that conversations about racial justice must be enveloped by conversations about