Transracial (identity)

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A transracial person is one who identifies as a different race than the one associated with their biological ancestry. They may adjust their appearance to make themselves look more like that race, and may participate in activities associated with that race. Use of the word transracial to describe this is new and has been criticized, because the word was historically used to describe a person raised by adoptive parents of a different ethnic or racial background, such as a Black child adopted and raised by a White couple.

History and usage

Historically, the term transracial was used solely to describe parents who adopt a child of a different race.

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. 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."

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. 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.

Examples

• Rachel Dolezal, known for identifying as a black woman despite having been born to white parents, successfully passed as black, to the extent that she took over leadership of the Spokane branch of the NAACP in 2014, a year before she was "outed" in 2015
• Martina Big, who was featured on Maury in September 2017, a woman of white ancestry who identifies as black, has had melanotan injections administered by a physician to darken her skin and hair
• Jessica Krug, a white Jewish-American woman who identified as various black and Afro-Latina ethnicities over time, including "North African Blackness," "US rooted Blackness," and "Caribbean rooted Bronx Blackness"
• Oli London, British influencer and singer who previously identified as Korean, and had numerous plastic surgeries to confirm his racial identity, modelled his appearance on his idol, BTS singer Jimin
• Korla Pandit, African-American musician who posed as an Indian from New Delhi in both his public and private life, was born John Roland Redd

See also

• Interracial adoption
• Black Like Me
• Ethnic plastic surgery
• Passing (racial identity)
• Racial misrepresentation

Further reading

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