Transracial (identity) - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Transracial identity) Cultural identity This article is about transracial people or transracial identity. For other uses, see Transracial (disambiguation).

Transracial is a label used by people who identify as a different race than the one they were born into. 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

References

Valby, Karen. "The Realities of Raising a Kid of a Different Race". Time. Archived from the original on December 18, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
"Growing Up 'White,' Transracial Adoptee Learned To Be Black". NPR. January 26, 2014. Archived from the original on December 25, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
^ Kai-Hwa Wang, Frances (June 17, 2015). "Adoptees to Rachel Dolezal: You're Not Transracial". NBC News. Archived from the original on January 1, 2018. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
Moyer, Justin Wm. (June 17, 2015). "Rachel Dolezal draws ire of transracial adoptees". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 24, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
Kimberly McKee, PhD; et al. (June 16, 2015). "An Open Letter: Why Co-opting "Transracial" in the Case of Rachel Dolezal is Problematic". Archived from the original on March 13, 2018. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
^ Tuvel, Rebecca (2017). "In Defense of Transracialism". Hypatia. 32 (2): 263–278. doi:10.1111/hypa.12327. ISSN 0887-5367. S2CID 151630261.
Trans: Gender and Race in an Age of Unsettled Identities. Princeton University Press. October 4, 2016. ISBN 9780691172354. Archived from the original on November 29, 2018. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
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. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 27, 2019. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
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. S2CID 146583317.
Horne, Marc (October 12, 2021). "Members can identify as black, disabled or female, university union insists". The Times. Archived from the original on October 13, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
^ 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. Archived from the original on October 1, 2017. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
^ Valens, Ana (September 22, 2017). "White woman who 'transitioned' races to Black is back". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on September 29, 2017. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
^ Bido, Tatiana (March 20, 2018). "Woman Totally Changes Skin Tone Using Illegal and Harmful 'Barbie Drug'". Yahoo Life. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
"The Layered Deceptions of Jessica Krug, the Black-Studies Professor Who Hid That She Is White". The New Yorker. September 12, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
Lumpkin, Lauren; Svrluga, Susan (September 3, 2020). "White GWU professor admits she falsely claimed Black identity". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 5, 2020. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
Neumann, Laiken (June 21, 2021). "'This is my new official flag': White influencer says they identify as Korean". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on June 25, 2021. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
Spickard, Paul (June 2022). "Shape Shifting: Toward a Theory of Racial Change". Genealogy. 6 (2): 48. doi:10.3390/genealogy6020048. ISSN 2313-5778.

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.

v t e Multiracial topics
Terms	Afro-Asian Amazonian Jews Brazilians juçaras caiçaras pardo caboclo mameluco sarará cafuzo Chindians Chitty Coloureds Cape Coloureds Basters Griquas Oorlam Dougla Eurasians Amerasian Bụi đời Anglo-Burmese Anglo-Indian Burgher Dutch Indo Eurasian Singaporean Filipino Mestizo Hāfu Kristang Luk khrueng Luso-Asians Macanese Topasses Hapa Hùnxuě'ér Chindian Marabou Melungeon mestiço (ainoko) Mestizo castizo cholo coyote Métis Mixed-blood mulatos Peranakan Chinese Quadroon Sacatra
History	Cherokee freedmen controversy Ethnogenesis Exogamy Interethnic marriage Interracial marriage Melting pot Miscegenation One-drop rule Origins of Hutu, Tutsi and Twa Passing Plaçage Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories
Lists	Contemporary ethnic groups Diasporas luk khrueng people
See also	Race of the future

v t e Ethnicity
Concepts	Clan Ethnic group Ethnographic group Ethnolinguistic group Ethnonational group Ethnoreligious group Ethnographic realism Diaspora Immigration Hyphenated ethnicity Indigenous peoples In-group and out-groups Meta-ethnicity Metroethnicity Minority group Influence Monoethnicity Nation Nationality Panethnicity Polyethnicity Population Race Supraethnicity Symbolic ethnicity Tribe
Ethnology	Anthropology Ethnic studies Ethnoarchaeology Ethnobiology Ethnobotany Ethnoecology Ethnomycology Ethnozoology Ethnocinema Ethnogeology Ethnography Autoethnography Clinical Critical Institutional Netnography Online Person-centered Salvage Transidioethnography Video Ethnohistory Ethnolinguistics Ethnology Ethnomathematics Ethnostatistics Ethnomedicine Ethnomethodology Ethnomuseology Ethnomusicology Ethnophilosophy Ethnopoetics Ethnopsychopharmacology Ethnoscience Ethnosemiotics Ethnotaxonomy
Groups by region	World Contemporary ethnic groups Countries by ethnic groups Africa Americas Indigenous Canada Greenland Mexico United States Caribbean Central America South America Asia Central Asia East Asia Northern Asia South Asia Southeast Asia West Asia Australia Aboriginal groups Torres Strait Islanders Europe Oceania Indigenous European
Identity and ethnogenesis	Cross-race effect Cultural assimilation Cultural identity Demonym Development Endonym Ethnarch Ethnic flag Ethnic option Ethnic origin Ethnic religion Ethnicity in censuses Ethnofiction Ethnonym Folk religion Historical Imagined community Kinship Legendary progenitor Linguistic homeland Mores Mythomoteur Nation-building Nation state National language National myth Origin myth Pantribal sodality Statistext Tribal name Tribalism Detribalization Neotribalism White ethnic
Multiethnic society	Consociationalism Cultural appropriation Diaspora politics Dominant minority Ethnic democracy Ethnic enclave Ethnic interest group Ethnic majority Ethnic media Ethnic nationalism Ethnic pornography Ethnic theme park Ethnoburb Ethnocracy Ethnographic film Ethnographic village Ethnopluralism Indigenous rights Middleman minority Minority rights Model minority Model minority myth Multinational state
Ideology and ethnic conflict	Allophilia Ethnic bioweapon Ethnic cleansing Ethnic hatred Ethnic joke Ethnic party Ethnic penalty Ethnic slurs Ethnic stereotype Ethnic violence Ethnic riots Ethnocentrism Ethnocide Ethnofuturism Ethnosymbolism Indigenism Indigenization Nativism Separatist movements Xenocentrism Xenophilia Xenophobia
Related	Minzu (anthropology)

v t e Obsolete definitions of race
Racism Scientific racism Pseudoscience
Color terminology	Black Bronze Brown Olive Red White
Concepts	Australoid Capoid Caucasoid Alpine Arabid Armenoid Aryan Atlantid Caspian Dinaric East Baltic Ethiopid Hamites Indid Iranid Mediterranean Nordic Semites Turanid Malay Mongoloid Proto-Mongoloid Sinodonty and Sundadonty Negroid Negrito
Sociological	in India Passing Racial discrimination Racism Racial stereotypes Colorism Master race Nazism and race Racial hygiene Whiteness studies Négritude
Writers	Louis Agassiz John Baker Erwin Baur John Beddoe Robert Bennett Bean François Bernier Renato Biasutti Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Franz Boas Daniel Garrison Brinton Paul Broca Alice Mossie Brues Halfdan Bryn Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Charles Caldwell Petrus Camper Samuel A. Cartwright Houston Stewart Chamberlain Sonia Mary Cole Carleton S. Coon Georges Cuvier Jan Czekanowski Charles Davenport Joseph Deniker Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt Anténor Firmin Eugen Fischer Francis Galton Stanley Marion Garn Reginald Ruggles Gates George Gliddon Arthur de Gobineau Madison Grant John Grattan Hans F. K. Günther Ernst Haeckel Frederick Ludwig Hoffman Earnest Hooton Julian Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley Calvin Ira Kephart Robert Knox Robert E. Kuttner Georges Vacher de Lapouge Fritz Lenz Carl Linnaeus Cesare Lombroso Bertil Lundman Felix von Luschan Dominick McCausland John Mitchell Ashley Montagu Lewis H. Morgan Samuel George Morton Josiah C. Nott Karl Pearson Roger Pearson Oscar Peschel Isaac La Peyrère Charles Pickering Ludwig Hermann Plate Alfred Ploetz James Cowles Prichard Otto Reche Gustaf Retzius William Z. Ripley Alfred Rosenberg Benjamin Rush Henric Sanielevici Heinrich Schmidt Ilse Schwidetzky Charles Gabriel Seligman Giuseppe Sergi Samuel Stanhope Smith Herbert Spencer Morris Steggerda Lothrop Stoddard William Graham Sumner Thomas Griffith Taylor Paul Topinard John H. Van Evrie Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer Alexander Winchell Ludwig Woltmann
Publications	An Essay upon the Causes of the Different Colours of People in Different Climates (1744) The Outline of History of Mankind (1785) Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question (1849) An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1855) The Races of Europe (Ripley, 1899) The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899) Race Life of the Aryan Peoples (1907) Heredity in Relation to Eugenics (1911) Castes in India (1916) The Passing of the Great Race (1916) The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy (1920) The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) Annihilation of Caste (1936) An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus (1943) The Race Question (1950)
Related	Ethnogenesis Eugenics Great chain of being History of anthropometry Miscegenation Monogenism Multiracial Polygenism Pre-Adamite Pre-modern conceptions of whiteness

Categories:

History and usage

Examples

See also

References

Further reading