The Primacy Paradox and the Racialization of Agentic Self-Expression

• In Event: 20464 - Queer of Color Critique and Sociology

Abstract

In this paper, I introduce the mechanism of the “primacy paradox” to account for a finding from population-level data integrated with qualitative narrative evidence that complicates assumptions about the relationship between race and transgender identity often found in Queer/Trans of Color Critique. Through this mechanism, I highlight how and why people at the top of social hierarchies, including race, may actually face unique obstacles, while those lower in the hierarchy have unique opportunities, when it comes to agentic self-expression as measured by trans identification.

Author

• Danya Lagos, University of California-Berkeley