wtf does "transracial" even mean??
wft does transgender even mean??
Is it offensive to you if I ask that question? If so, why is your question NOT offensive?
Because being transgender is not nearly the same thing as what Rachel Dolezal did. Minorities are not something white people can wear as costumes when they want us for their own selfish gain or because they’re bored being white. Comparing what Dolezal did to transgenderism is insulting to both people who face discrimination because they are transgender or because of their race.
Being transgender is not something voluntary. Putting on blackface and lying about yourself for your own gain is. Gender and sex are complicated things that we don’t fully understand 100%, but both have a basis in biology. When I was born, I was born with the physical sex of a male, and my biology resulted in me identifying with the gender of a male by influencing my way of thinking, my tastes, and how I wanted to express myself (I am cisgender).
When a transgender person is born, they are born with the physical sex of one gender, but their biology affects their way of thinking, their tastes, and how they want to express themselves as the other gender/sex. Though gender norms are heavily influenced by society around us, no one “chooses” to be transgender in the same way that no one “chooses” to be LGBT.
Race, on the other hand, is not anything like sex and gender. When my mom was born, she was not born “inherently” Asian. When my dad was born, he was not born “inherently” white. When I was born, I was not born “inherently” mixed-race. Race is merely a superficial set of external characteristics like skin color, facial features, hair texture and color, etc. that has no major bearing on our way of thinking, our tastes, or how we want to express ourselves.
Despite being superficial when taken by itself, race is still a major force in the world because it is ingrained in culture and has serious implications for minorities (especially black people) in society. Thought I am racially half-white and culturally identify as white, and all of my friends and family recognize this, when I go out into public and deal with people at work or on the street who do not know me personally and my background, my features often lead to people thinking that I am Hispanic, Arab, Turkish, or southern European (a lot of Hispanic people here in the USA think I’m actually Spanish as in “from Spain”). While I am fortunate to never have experienced outright discrimination, but rather mostly awkward mistakes and cultural insensitivity at worst, many people have it far worse. This is something I realized about myself and the world only 3 years ago or so, when I finally gained the independence to leave home by myself, get a job, and interact with the public.
“Transracial” as recently as a month ago simply referred to families where the parents had adopted children of a different race and had to explain to them, that while race did not exist in their home, it had serious implications for them outside in the world (the most common example is white parents have “The Talk” with their black children about police).
It is possible and acceptable for a white person to be culturally black. Like, let’s say they were adopted by black parents, lived in a black neighborhood, socialized with black people, and were immersed in black culture. The reverse is also true. If Dolezal felt an affinity to black culture, that’s totally cool. She could’ve been a white woman who allied herself with black people and other minorities in the struggle for equality. Being a white ally is invaluable because you can form a bridge to other whites who don’t understand the struggle by challenging them. The problem is that being a white ally means you have to take the time and effort to build a reputation and track record with civil rights workers, and she probably found out that these workers didn’t immediately trust her.
So what did she choose to do? She chose to lie about her life and become black. She chose to take the place of a deserving black person who has had to live with the injustice and discrimination that black people face in America (especially black women) and replace that person with her lies, and speaking in place of them (i.e. silencing them) instead of speaking with them. She is tarnishing the hard work that white people have done over the past 200+ years when they work with civil rights groups.
If she did fabricate those death threats and hate mail that are being investigated right now, then she is stealing limited resources, time, and efforts from real hate crimes that are being committed and are often underreported.
If her claim that she is black got her a job at the university teaching Black studies, then she stole that job from a deserving black person who actually has personal experience all their lives with discrimination. It is further a problem since black people already face enormous challenges advancing in the workplace and academia. Additionally, students who took her classes say she mistreated them.
Though I’ve only seen this claimed in one place, if she did receive a full-ride scholarship to Howard University, then it is possible she may have denied that scholarship to a deserving black student.
So when you claim this is all “harmless”, you’re wrong. It is.
So how is this different from minorities who pass as white? Well, in many cases, that’s actually a matter of survival. I myself can easily pass as white, intentionally or unintentionally (especially during December – April, when I lose the coloring in my arms, neck, and face, and look like a white guy with dark hair and eyes). I don’t necessarily endorse it, so I don’t intentionally do it. However, white people in the United States do not face the same challenges that minorities (again, especially black people) face to advance in society and the workplace. If a minority passes off for white, they still have had to live with injustice and discrimination in their “pre-white life”. When she went black, she never had previously experienced the struggle that black people and other minorities face, and yet she claimed she did. As a white woman, she could’ve taken a huge number of jobs and been successful. The problem is that she used her blackface to possibly take resources from deserving black people and then mistreated people using her position.
Now if she had claimed to be black, darkened her hair and skin, lied about her past, but did not really benefit from any of this by getting a job and a scholarship and faking hate crimes, I don’t think I’d really have a problem with it. If it was revealed and went public, you’d probably see a lot less anger about this. It would be weird as hell, but since in this case there wouldn’t have been much harm, no one would really care.
The problem though, is that she used it to get ahead, lie her way into a position of trust, and may have taken resources and a voice from deserving minorities. Again: she wore being a minority like a costume for her own benefit, and used her position to insult and mistreat others.
If you defend her actions and equivocate transgenderism and this new bulls*** definition of “transracial”, then you are insulting people who face gender and racial discrimination, stealing an identifier from people who come from transracial adoptive families, and are helping perpetuate white privilege.
EDIT - goddamn am I wordy
