To think Rachel Dolezal is an utter charlatan

[MercyMyJewels]

twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/846410886671732736

Apparently there is a thing called transracial now.

What next, transbeastial?

But it's not like transgender. Because gender (it's in the word) is in the mind. Sex is different. Sex is biological you can't deny that it's a physical characteristic. But gender is all in the brain.

But is race a physical characteristic? It doesnt mean much to say because if you're black and born in the UK, you're British. If you're white and born in Africa, you're African?

So I don't understand why race is a physical characteristic?? What's the definition of race?? Because maybe when travel wasnt so common you could assume an Asian person would look a certain way, or a African person would look a certain way or a European would look a certain way?

Apparently dh looked up race:
The classification of human into groups based on physical traits, ancestry, genetics and social relations.

So! It's not just your skin colour at all. So maybe you could be transracial??

As usual, TRAs try to conflate the experiences of white, middle aged, middle class MTTs with young, poor POC

Even someone who is like that knows exactly what it is like when unemployed, desperate for money, needs to eat, feed themselves and their children, can't get a job because people won't employ them - and you can get very desperate because life can drop on you just like that. When you are desperate, hungry, need money, it's not just young, poor POC who do what they need to do to earn money.

I would really like to see some valid statistics which show that trans people are more at risk of;

1. suicide and
2. murder

The only valid stats I have seen for 2 is for Latinox trans prostitutes in the USA

The only suicide statistics I have seen are touted by Mermaids and are a sham....only 29 trans youths all recruited from mental health clinics and all self defining suicide ideation

All the trans people I know in the UK are successful middle aged middle class white autogynophilic men, or mis-guided Kids/teens

Although I don't agree with RD at all, she has spent a great deal of time advocating on race issues in the US. Although she was wrong to take a paid job that should have been given to a black person, there doesn't seem to be any objection from the people she dealt with that she was arguing to dismantle any programmes available to POC or that white "transracial" people should have access to programmes for POC.

To that extent, she seems to have been less harmful to black activism than the TRAs are for feminism.

She is basically pretending to be a black woman which I would have thought would be an insult to actual black women.
I think she must have mental health problems or be a fantasist of some kind.

If I am mistaken - if transactivism is about supporting trans people in all aspects of their lives, including to full access to education, sport, healthcare, and employment, with equal rights under the law; BUT recognises that there are circumstances where it is not appropriate for them to have access to all spaces, stations, activities which are IDENTICAL to those provided for people born of that sex: if THAT is what transactivism is, then I support it

AntiGrinch I think most people would support this, but it's not what transactivism is and the activists have been very successful in getting their agenda into the mainstream. The Women and Equalities Committee of MPs wrote a report on Transgender Equality in which they recommend

1. that the Gender Reassignment Act with its criteria for reassignment be scrapped and replaced with self-identification. Anyone who says they are a woman is a woman. And

2. that the legal right to exclude transwomen from certain women's services, spaces etc if there is a reasonable reason under the Equality Act be scrapped. So that, to all intents and purposes there will be no legal difference between a woman and a self-identified transwoman. i.e. It would be illegal to exclude a (self-identified) transwoman with a penis from any women's facility or job, for example, for any reason.

This is the legal direction we are currently heading in.

Even someone who is like that knows exactly what it is like when unemployed, desperate for money, needs to eat, feed themselves and their children, can't get a job because people won't employ them - and you can get very desperate because life can drop on you just like that. When you are desperate, hungry, need money, it's not just young, poor POC who do what they need to do to earn money.

Is it because they are trans that 45 year old white software engineers can identify with 18 year old Latino prostitutes?

Indeed FloraFox. In fact, she was so successful in her role, which included holding the local police chief to account for apparent racism in his force, that he hired a private investigator to try to dig up some dirt on her...which is how her back story came to be known

Ego - thanks for posting the link to the Transequality website. Some interesting stuff on there, that I will go back to later when I have some more time.

I have only read the exec summary, but one thing that really jumps out is the "protective factor" of having family support. Its impact on things like attempting suicide is obvious, but I'm less clear how having a supportive family is likely to prevent discrimination at work, for example.

She can go back to being a white blond woman for her convenience any time she wants. A real black woman is a black woman for life no matter what kind of harrassment, discrimination and shit she gets.

@quencher really enjoyed reading the Ted talk.

Enthusiasm I work in a lab we receive all the antenatal book in bloods everyone gets:

Full blood count
Haemoglobinopathy (sickle cell screen)
Ferrari
Serum Folate
B12
Glucose

*Ferritin (iron)

But is race a physical characteristic? Well I guess different races do have different physical characteristics. When people of different races have children, then there is the understandable issue of which of the races in their mix, they most identify with. But they do have the genetic inheritance of both races.

I am Jewish. I have typically Jewish features, several very unlucky members of my family have life-limiting genetic syndromes only Ashkenazi Jews can have. I might well decide I don't identify with being Jewish and that I feel more, Somali, Japanese, Polynesian etc, but my genetic inheritance and what I see when I look in the mirror, says otherwise. Should I be able to access services open to Somalis because I feel like a Somali not a British Jew, no I shouldn't. Does it matter that I might well feel Somali, no I don't believe it does. I'm just not.

I think trans-racial is similar to trans-sexual. You may well loathe your male/female body and feel the need to change it radically, you may well identify totally with the opposite sex, you may feel you are the opposite sex but that doesn't mean you are that sex surely.

I think she must have mental health problems or be a fantasist of some kind.

So how is that different to being 'transgender' then?

Indeed FloraFox. In fact, she was so successful in her role, which included holding the local police chief to account for apparent racism in his force, that he hired a private investigator to try to dig up some dirt on her...which is how her back story came to be known** why do I see white saviour complex exemplified here. How many black people try to have cases against the police and fail?
Based on past examples of cases like hers, I would assume her looking more white than black probably helped her.
I would also, say, probably the confidence of facing someone you consider an equal in regards to race played apart. Someone you never grew up being fearful off.
The policeman probably sensed it and thought something was not right based on his past experience dealing with black people.

It can be anything of the above. Or maybe she was just good at it. We will never know.

To that extent, she seems to have been less harmful to black activism than the TRAs are for feminism.

Indeed. Much less harmful.

She really identifies as black and fights for the rights of black people.

Can't recall that any transwacktivist ever fought for women's rights to have abortions. They only demand that language be inclusive of transmen when real feminists already have done all the hard work.

I would also, say, probably the confidence of facing someone you consider an equal in regards to race played apart. Someone you never grew up being fearful off.

That seems likely to be true. I'm not for one second suggesting she was a better activist than a black woman would have been, but that she was not trying to dismantle progress on civil rights.

"fearful of" I have just noticed I typed off

Maybe, quencher and floraFox. As you say, we will probably never really know (though another plug here for the Decca Aitkenhead interview, which covers a lot of the ground on this thread in some interesting ways)

Yy, Vestal.

Has she been interviewed by a black woman at all? I would love to read that if any one ever comes across it. Please post it on Mn and tag my name.

@quencher

m.youtube.com/watch?v=54QrcxCKo1o

@GinSwigmore ohh! Thank you. That's all I needed. 😂

Thanks Gin!

Just watched it, thought RD came across really badly. But even more interesting, can you imagine the reaction if a panel of 4/5 people (maybe Loose Women but not as annoying...) interviewed a transwoman (maybe someone like India Willoughby) by putting them in the middle of the sofa, firing questions at her from all sides, and quite clearly disagreeing with her assertion that she had lived experience that was comparable to their's? The Jenni Murray affair would have nothing on the shit storm that would surely follow

@Olenna

Kellie Maloney has been on Loose Women but has never asserted lived experience. The panel were supportive. Bear in mind that Kellie has had surgery, denounced the homophobic overcompensating persona that was Frank and preproduction will have set questions.
Only two questions come up which are not "soft" questions: one is Kellie's view on Caitlyn not having had surgery (also CJ "look" is alluded to) also Katie Price asks Kellie about her change in personality. But none of it is done confrontationally. They don't tend to round up on their guests or challenge them that much, any robust opinion is usually when the target of criticism is not in the studio.
m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=qr4XZxExb6w
m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=hEB93rC-5RA