Transracial (identity)

Transracial people are individuals who assert a racial identity for themselves which differs from their birth race.[1][2]

Rachel Dolezal has been described as a white woman who identifies as an African American.

Examples

By far the most well-known example of a self-identified person in the English-speaking world is Rachel Dolezal, a woman of white ancestry who identifies as black.[1][2] She successfully passed as black, to the extent that she took over leadership of the Spokane branch of the NAACP in 2014, a year before her "outing" in 2015.

Martina Big, who was featured on Maury in September 2017, is another woman of white ancestry who identifies as black.[3][4] Big has had tanning injections administered by a physician to darken her skin and hair. [3][4]

Ja Du, a trans woman who was born Caucasian but now considers herself Filipina, created a Facebook page and community for others who self-identify as transracial.[5][6][7]

Theoretical approaches

In April 2017, the feminist philosophy journal Hypatia published an academic paper in support of recognizing transracialism and drawing parallels between transracial and transgender identity.[1] Publication of this paper resulted in considerable controversy. The subject was also explored in Trans: Gender and Race in an Age of Unsettled Identities, a 2016 book by UCLA sociology professor Rogers Brubaker, who argues that the phenomenon, though offensive to many, is psychologically real to many people, and has many examples throughout history.[8][9]

Controversy over the term

Historically, transracial has been used to describe parents who adopt a child of a different race.[10][11][12]

The use of the term to describe changing racial identity has been criticized by members of the transracial adoption community. Kevin H. Vollmers, executive director of an adoption non-profit, said the term is being "appropriated and co-opted" and that this is a "slap in the face" to transracial adoptees.[12] In June 2015, about two dozen transracial adoptees, transracial parents and academics published an open letter in which they condemned the new usage as "erroneous, ahistorical, and dangerous."[12][13][14]

See also

• Ethnic plastic surgery
• Good hair
• Otherkin
• Passing (racial identity)
• Transabled (body integrity dysphoria)
• Transhumanism

References

1. Tuvel, Rebecca (2017). "In Defense of Transracialism". Hypatia. 32 (2): 263–278. doi:10.1111/hypa.12327. ISSN 0887-5367.
2. Brubaker, Rogers (2015). "The Dolezal affair: race, gender, and the micropolitics of identity". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 39 (3): 414–448. doi:10.1080/01419870.2015.1084430. ISSN 0141-9870.
3. Lubin, Rhian (September 22, 2017). "White glamour model with size 32S breasts who spent £50k on cosmetic surgery now 'identifies as a black woman'". Daily Mirror. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
4. Valens, Ana (September 22, 2017). "White woman who 'transitioned' races to Black is back". The Daily Dot. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
5. Yam, Kimberly (2017-11-15). "Filipinos Aren't Happy With This White Woman Claiming To Be Filipina". HuffPost. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
6. "Man born white explains why he now identifies as Filipino". The Independent. 2017-11-14. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
7. Salo, Jackie (2017-11-13). "'Transracial' man was born white, identifies as Filipino". New York Post. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
8. "Trans: Gender and Race in an Age of Unsettled Identities". Princeton University Press. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
9. Brubaker, Rogers (2016). "Introduction" (PDF). Trans: Gender and Race in an Age of Unsettled Identities. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. pp. 1–11. ISBN 9780691172354. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
10. Valby, Karen. "The Realities of Raising a Kid of a Different Race". Time. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
11. NPR Staff (January 26, 2014). "Growing Up 'White,' Transracial Adoptee Learned To Be Black". NPR. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
12. Kai-Hwa Wang, Frances (June 17, 2015). "Adoptees to Rachel Dolezal: You're Not Transracial". NBC News. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
13. Moyer, Justin Wm. (June 17, 2015). "Rachel Dolezal draws ire of transracial adoptees". Washington Post. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
14. Kimberly McKee, PhD; et al. (June 16, 2015). "An Open Letter: Why Co-opting "Transracial" in the Case of Rachel Dolezal is Problematic". Retrieved December 17, 2017.

Further reading

• Brubaker, Rogers (2016). Trans: Gender and Race in an Age of Unsettled Identities. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-17235-4.
• Dolezal, Rachel (2017). In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World. with Storms Reback. Dallas: BenBella Books. ISBN 978-1-944648-17-6.