TRIGGER WARNINGS: Discussion of anti-trans violence, white supremacy, emotional labor, death, and systemic neglect. Take care of your spirit.

In this searing and unflinching episode of South Sound Sapphic, we pull the mask off one of the most insidious forms of modern oppression: weaponized white incompetence—and the ways it collides with cisgender fragility, heteronormativity, and neurotypical social expectations to actively harm QTBIPOC people, especially Black, brown, disabled, neurodivergent, and sapphic trans folks.

We name the behaviors. We expose the systems. We drag the performance of helplessness into the light—and show how it’s anything but harmless.

“I don’t know what to say.” “I don’t want to get it wrong.” “I’m still learning.”

These aren’t always innocent statements. They are often stall tactics. They are how silence gets weaponized. How inaction becomes policy. How people with privilege hand off responsibility while watching others bleed for it.

In this episode, we break down:

• What weaponized incompetence actually is—and how it’s used to offload harm.
• How whiteness, cisness, straightness, and neurotypicality build the perfect shield for inaction.
• What it feels like to be on the receiving end of that silence as a marginalized trans person.
• Why “being a good person” is not enough—and never was.
• The emotional, physical, and political cost of white queer and liberal passivity.
• The only two outcomes of harm: it stops, or it continues.

We don’t offer easy answers. We don’t tone it down. This episode is an invitation—to get uncomfortable, get accountable, and get moving.

If you’re a QTBIPOC listener, this one is for you. We see you. We’re done carrying what they refuse to confront.

If you benefit from power and privilege—this is your call-in. No more hiding behind confusion. No more borrowed language. No more waiting until you're perfect.

Liberation doesn’t need your optics. It needs your action.

Resources Mentioned:

• Jared Sandberg, The Art of Showing Pure Incompetence at an Unwanted Task, The Wall Street Journal
• Cheryl Harris, Whiteness as Property, (Harvard Law Review, 1993)
• David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness
• Nell Irvin Painter, The History of White People
• Human Rights Campaign: 2024 Legislative Roundup
• ACLU LGBTQ+ Policy Tracker
• Trevor Project Trans Youth Reports
• @critical.conscious.counseling on Instagram
• Human Rights Campaign: 2024 State Legislative Roundup
• ACLU: Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation Tracker
• Trevor Project Reports on Suicide Risk in Trans Youth

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In this debut episode of South Sound Sapphic, we take you on a time-traveling journey through the overlooked and often-erased histories of QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities in Washington State. From settler-colonial statehood in 1889 to the radical resistance of the present day, we explore how local policies, community organizing, and unapologetic joy have shaped the queer experience in the Pacific Northwest.

We also zoom in on the cultural heartbeats of Seattle’s Capitol Hill and Tacoma’s queer underground, celebrating the bars, clinics, protests, and community centers that have held us when no one else would.

Whether you're a longtime local, a late-blooming queer, or someone seeking to connect more deeply with where we’ve been and where we’re going—this episode is your invitation to remember, to resist, and to connect.