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?

Just let her be. She's got significant issues with cognitive dissonance and her family background is part of it. Courting publicity is part of this, if she's bringing her community into disrepute they can respond to it.

There are plenty of people that willingly integrate into another culture because they are welcomed. There are also plenty of albinos in Africa and India that are shunned by their communities because they look different. People deserve to be treated like people, regardless of race and gender.

What duration and level of mental & physical anguish would validate Dolziel's trans racial identity in your opinion ego?
Do you think she hated seeing a white woman when she looked in the mirror because she felt black inside? How is that different to the way lots of trans people say they feel?

It makes much more sense to be choose your own race than to choose your own gender.

Race is not a real biological phenomenon, it's purely a descriptive label based on superficial appearance. A mixed race person can appear to be 'black' or 'white' based on slight genetic variations that have nothing to do with heritage or family background. Anyone who's worked in schools will know children who look white but actually have one black parent, especially in the UK which has one of the largest numbers of mixed race children in the world. It's totally legitimate for people to decide for themselves how they identity.

I am sure people noticed those people who claim to be fully supportive of people who are transsexual when they criticised the comments of people who openly ridiculed transsexual people on this thread.

It does take a lot to stand up for trans people on MN and I am glad that posters like caryl do it. It means a lot.

So on the one hand you have race, this complex and multi layered social construct which has many factors and is hard to strictly define.

On the other hand you have sex, a biological mechanism for the reproduction of the species.

And you want me to believe that it's more valid to change your reproductive assignation than your racial one?

Needless to say I'm not really convinced.

I wish people would say sex when they mean sex. I know the use of gender is more synonymous with sex in some places and contexts but it's getting to the point that it is becoming impossible to talk about. This is not just directed at StarCrossd, it's about the fourth time I've seen it today.

I am transslothial.

www.lifeisgoodmakeitbetter.com/2015/03/the-appropriation-of-black-and-hispanic.html?m=1

This is interesting, written by a tw and analysing the murder rate for trans people. Definitely good news for trans people who understandably worry about being attacked. It seems that the likelihood of murder has been exaggerated by some trans people and allies for some reason.

The film mentioned up thread is called Imitation of Life , I remember that film well

the reason why it is comparable is down to a feeling

all feelings we have are our own and we feel them so they are valid to ourselves there may come a time when being transracial is recognised but that does not change biological facts and those biological facts impacts our lives and society

no one is denying that trans people struggle with their own feelings, that they can feel utter hatred for the own body and that this can be extremely difficult to experience who is to say RD hasn't also felt this way and it has impacted her mental health

we have a very successful industry that sells many products to women of colour to lighten their skins (many are very damaging), plastic surgery to make their features more European like

also millions of women around the world have no choice but to sell their bodies for sex to strangers to put food in their children mouths this isn't done because of changes they want to make to their body because of a deep seated feeling it is done to survive

no feelings of suffering change biological facts of your sex or race and how you are treated by society as we are all aware is impacted by your sex and race

You can't claim to be black when you're white. You can't claim to be white when you're black. The difference is obvious. It's colour. You can love and identify with culture that comes from being whatever colour you want, but it doesn't make you it!

I've never, nor do I know anyone that has, wondered if their inner thoughts and feeling are black, or white. That's why you can't be transracial. Because it's not about something you can change or have been born wrong into. You don't think black or think white, you just think.

You don't get to put "white" on any paperwork identifying you when you are black because it's not true, it's your appearance, it's not a feeling inside. Unlike, I imagine, trans men and women, where it is a feeling/thoughts inside. That is why they're different things.

RD can say all she likes that she identifies with black culture and wants to be a part of it but she isn't and never will be actually black. She's just ridiculous.

StarCrossed most of us don't really get a choice. I'm mixed race and my DNA says brown curly hair, brown eyes & brown skin. I can say I'm white all I like but no one will believe me but I can say I'm black and most people agree.

And even if you are one of the mixed people with blonde hair and blue eyes I don't think a lot of black people would appreciate you completely denying you black heritage.

I think anyone struggling to understand it in the same way as nancy75 would be helped by looking up the 'one drop' approach to race that is/was more prominent in the US than in the UK.

Noodle
"You don't get to put "white" on any paperwork identifying you when you are black because it's not true, it's your appearance, it's not a feeling inside. Unlike, I imagine, trans men and women, where it is a feeling/thoughts inside. That is why they're different things."

How do you know it's not a feeling inside?

NotCaryl

See Alex Drummond. No drugs, surgery, shaving. Member of Stonewall's trans advisory group. Author of Grrl Alex.

Sex is determined by chromosomes and hormones and the effect of hormones in the body, on the brain etc. There could well be something biological going on inside that has affected 'something' in a trans person's body and brain. Especially as hormone levels change and affect the body and brain.

How is race determined?

I have no idea what 'insults' I've 'slung around' (more definitions to look up?) but if you want to have a debate, Caryl, go ahead.

What it looks like you're doing is shouting that we're nazis and that we all hate all trans people, which I find difficult to see as the start of a reasoned debate (actually, it looks a little bit, in a certain light, like slinging insults around), but perhaps I have misread you.

I am transyoung. I am 48 but identify as 22. I have just applied for my Young Persons railcard.

Because it's skin colour. Like eye colour. I don't feel like a blue eyed person or a brown eyed person. My eyes just see. If I were blind from birth the only reason I would know the colour of my skin was if someone told me. I wouldn't feel it.

Actually maybe that should be a thing too then. I have brown eyes but actually I really feel they should be blue. So from now on, my eyes are blue.

What do people think of John Hurt who identified as Irish and was gutted when he found out he had no Irish ancestry?www.irishtimes.com/culture/john-hurt-gutted-to-find-out-he-isn-t-irish-1.2955343

Still no one has been able to explain the difference between transracial and transgender.

Because it is the same load of nonsense.

Adopt whatever trappings you like, no one is bothered. But if you are white, don't try and muscle in on the small amount of privileges a black person has. And if you are a man, don't do the same to women.

NotCaryl "Race is a social construct not a biological one, and a construct involving complex social systems.

To acknowledge transracial as a real thing means acknowledging race as a biological rather than a social construct based on current cultural mores"

Oh, the irony!

You can put anything you want in the 'race' box. It absolutely is a feeling. I have a friend whose son is 1/8th Jamaican. His dad looks sort of Italian and he is blond. She ticked mixed heritage in his nursery enrolement but expects that when he's older he will consider himself white. He might or he might not and he can choose.

If you want to be taken seriously don't write things like "biological gender"!