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Original poster

Self ID: White man identifies as African (ok not really feminism)

54 replies

Needmoresleep · 04/11/2018 03:51

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6350675/White-theatre-director-classes-born-African.html

OP posts:
Sashkin · 04/11/2018 05:38

White and African are not mutually exclusive. Perfectly possible to be both white and African. Look at South Africa.

I wonder if this guy is claiming any specific African heritage (I note he’s named himself after a pharaoh, does he identify as Egyptian?). If he’s identifying as generic “African” with no further qualification, that adds another level of urgh. Like identifying as Asian but not specifying whether you mean Indian, Chinese, Thai or Japanese.

Bowlofbabelfish · 04/11/2018 04:53

Not ok. He’s received significant funding and deprived someone else of it.

There’s no safety issue here, but massive appropriation. It’ll be interesting to see the reaction to this. Interesting too to see the comment ‘Sometimes I feel like you are watching me. Watching me to say this equals a black man. Then you're taking it from me, and sticking it on yourself.' because again he’s reducing being black to a costume/performance. I can see why his colleague is uneasy.

Original poster
Needmoresleep · 04/11/2018 04:37

Exactly. This guy appears to have a long history of identifying as African and largely appears to be accepted as African.

But he is not.

The parallels with transgender Self ID are there.

I am not happy about being expected to accept transgender women as women, in spaces restricted to women, so will have every sympathy if others feel the same about access to support designed for BAMEs. It will be interesting to see what reaction there is, if any.

OP posts:
AutoFilled · 04/11/2018 03:59

I know a black colleague who self identifies as an Asian. He has never lived there and doesn’t speak the language. He loves the culture and has been there once as a tourist only. I always think of him when people talk about transgender. While ethnicity is subject to the person’s feeling and self identification, just because someone thinks they are Japanese doesn’t make them Japanese.