“To conflate trans folks with Dolezal gives credence to the deepest, most malicious lie there is about transgender identity and queer sexuality-that they are deceitful. In my opinion, ‘transracial’ does not parallel ‘transgender,’ where one can have the sex of a man or a woman, but the gender of the other.”Īllyson Hobbs, author of A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life I do not believe that it is possible to be ‘transracial’ because race is a social construct that is not based in biology. It is very likely that someone can identify as White, but have Black ancestry given the vast among of racial mixture that has occurred. “Identity is very, very complicated and also very, very personal. It can get you killed, and it can get you an NAACP presidency.” “ shows us how stupid the construct of ‘race’ is. The idea that you can move between races is only possible in one way: White to Black.” Socially constructed things become real when they’re embedded in the culture…race is real because it has come to define our societal positions, and it comes with very real and tangible consequences. Although race is considered a social construct, it’s still very real.
Transracial as it pertains to people feeling like they were born in the wrong skin is NOT A THING, and the comparison with people who identify as transgender needs to be deaded. I want to start off by asking them to have a seat…Transracial actually refers to when families adopt children who are of another ethnicity or race as them. “There are people who are wondering how we can cheer on Caitlyn Jenner but not Rachel Dolezal. Melissa-Harris Perry, talk show host and Wake Forest University professor But I wonder, can it be that one will be cis-Black and trans-Black? That there is actually a different category of Blackness that is about the achievement of Blackness, despite one’s parentage?” But there is a useful language in ‘trans’ and ‘cis,’ which is just to say some of us are born cisgendered, and some of us are born transgendered. “I want to be very careful here, because I don’t want to say it’s the equivalent of the transgender experience. People who are alienated from their presumed gender and define themselves according to another gender have existed since earliest recorded history race is a medieval European invention.” Doctors don’t announce our race or color when we are born they announce our gender. Transitioning is the product of a fundamental aspect of our humanity – gender – being foisted upon us over and over again from the time of our birth in a manner inconsistent with our own experience of our genders. “The fundamental difference between Dolezal’s actions and trans people’s is that her decision to identify as Black was an active choice, whereas transgender people’s decision to transition is almost always involuntary. Rosa Clemente, civil rights activist and journalist “As people of color, no matter how hard we try, we cannot achieve whiteness, but the fact that a White woman can achieve Blackness and lie and take space and take resources and on top of it be belligerent when confronted is the epitome of White privilege.” All of which might make Rachel Dolezal a white woman who identifies closely with the Black community. Her parents say that she had Black adopted siblings, had a Black circle of friends where she grew up in Mississippi – that she has married, and later divorced, a Black man. There are plenty of White people involved in the kind of civil rights work she was doing – particularly in Spokane, where just 2% of the population is Black. Right now, one can only speculate to her motivations. But with this right comes at least one responsibility: what you call yourself must be comprehensible to others…The problem for Dolezal is that her “Black” identity does not make sense.
That’s as true for Dolezal as it is for Caitlyn Jenner.
“It is a cardinal rule of social identity that people have the right to call themselves whatever they want. Take a look at 11 of the most thought-provoking quotes on the subject that have been floating around the web.
Regardless of which side of the newfound argument you’re on, everyone has an opinion. Much like a transgender person, they say, it is possible for an individual to be born “in the wrong skin.” Others are skeptical, arguing that the concept of “transracial” is purely another facet of White privilege, and that even if someone identifies as another race, they have the luxury of dodging the burdens that come with. Proponents say yes, transracial-ness is a thing. Rachel Dolezal has sparked a conversation that we didn’t even know we needed to have: Can one be transracial? Is it possible for one’s physical race to mismatch with how they feel on the inside?