If someone identifies as a different race....is it any different from gender?

[Jackieyoulooknice]

Just saw this story on Facebook..

fabiosa.com/ctnws-rsvlk-aumgr-pbdmt-rw-proud-to-be-now-a-black-woman-former-flight-attendant-changes-the-race-with-tan-injections/?utm_source=wikrmain&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=ssr

This woman doesn't identify as a different race she just wanted to be black, but everyone seems to be mocking her. If someone felt they identified as a different race would this be any stranger than someone who felt the same about their gender and became transgender?

Not trolling but just surprised at all the mocking that I saw people doing quite openly when most people seem accepting of transgender people.

I haven't really got an opinion on it as I find the situation so hard to imagine.

But someone who crosses racial boundaries from a privileged one to a marginalized one is much more likely to do so for political purposes (as Dolezal seems to have done) or to profit from minority culture

From the Guardian article.

'cos a man identifying as a woman is in now way crossing from a position of privilege, no sirree bob, nothing to see here..

I was wondering what happens regarding racial identity if a couple has a child who is unexpectedly a different race to them - or appears to be visually.

I knew a couple who were both very light skinned white people with gingery hair. They had a very, very dark skinned black baby. That has to be a shock if you have no inkling that there is any mix in your family lineage.

This was in a rural area of Northern England in the 1980s which was not multi-cultural at all. The child would have had a completely white upbringing and have rarely ever seen a black person.

So how would the child identify?

I think that it is the height of CF-ery for white people and men to seek election to represent people of colour or women.

When I see a bloke with a five o'clock shadow, posing like a teapot with fluttering false eyelashes, and asking for my vote to elect him to the position of "Women's Rep", you can guess my response.

I despair at the number of men who are women's officers, or who cheat their way into jobs designed for under-represented people of colour and women.

They have grandiose ideas, a sense of entitlement and a huge dollop of delusion. They need to be called out. Vacate the space, mate, and make room for people who know what they are talking about.

Cheeky F'ers.

Well said PamAyres.

Honestly it’s really fucking arrogance.

Ethnicity and race are different, whilst you could ‘possibly’ try to argue the case for ethnicity, you can’t for race.
The difference is though as others have pointed out there shouldn’t be a difference between races, you can feel more affiliated with a certain culture, sure & you should be able to embrace it & enjoy it without accusations of appropriation, but that is as far as it goes. However, there are fundamental differences between men & women, our biology would typically have some influence over our personality. For instance, different hormone levels, different muscle mass, the experience of carrying a child, these all would have had influence over stereotypical gender traits. So I genuinely feel you could change gender, (sex would be impossible) but not ethnicity.

If we don't accept that Rachel Dolezal is black simply because that's how she says she feels in her head, and she truly believes that she was meant to be a black woman from birth,

But, how would she know what it felt like to be black, the same as how would any man know what it feels like to be a woman. That's the bit I don't get?

I am black and I can tell you how society treats me, I am a woman, I can tell you how society treats me. But I can't explain what it feels like, because it doesn't really feel like anything. Does that make sense?

So they must be going by the outward appearance; the wearing dresses, make up rather than the 'feeling'.

Because, in relation to that lady who changed colour; if being black is a feeling, and she felt black, why did she need to change her outward appearance?

And also, it must be quite liberating to be able to wear a 'costume' of colour/ gender; knowing that you can play at it without the historical shit being attached; for women, for blacks.

Gee, there are some days I'd love to step out of my black 'costume' seriously.

But that is surely the same as saying why does a man need to cut off his penis just because he feels like a woman?

As she was not actually black just as transwomen are not actually women they must feel that the outward appearance is the only thing they can actually change.

As she was not actually black just as transwomen are not actually women they must feel that the outward appearance is the only thing they can actually change.

I agree, but they say that they feel like a woman, or feel a different colour but I'm sceptical as to how they quantify that feeling.

Apologies if I'm making no sense..it's been a looong day!

Different in my view. There are not the issues of invading women's spaces or dignity with someone identifying as a different race that there are with someone with a penis identifying as a woman.

I also don't understand why many transwomen want to flounce around in kitten heels and lashes.

Ordinary XX women spend most of their time wearing jeans, gym gear, very little or no make up.

What's with the caricature version of women?

It's not really challenging the gender stereotypes that they seem trapped by.

@ThatsWotSheSaid race is not a biological fact otherwise racial categories would be the same around the world. Ethnicity is a biological fact while race is a social and cultural construct.

Blackness78 - that's exactly what I think too. Would someone defend their right to "be" black if the condition included stepping into a time machine and going back 200 years?

What about species? Do people have the right to be recognised as a cat if they “identify” as one?

I find some of the comments on this thread abhorrent.

My race has nothing to do with my 'way of life' and to insinuate that it does is outright racism. It doesn't define me. It affects the colour of my skin, the way I look - it doesn't define me who I am.

Race and culture are not a package deal.

I do not believe you can identify with another race - you could I suppose reassign yourself with some drastic surgery to look different in the same way that a biological man or woman could have gender reassignment surgery.

But you can't decide you're another race. You could identify with another culture or belief system, but that's really not the same thing by a long shot.

It's all bollocks. You either are something or you're not. Identifying has nothing to do with it. It's horseshit and unfortunately a lot of people gave drunk the coolaid. Saying you identify as another sex or race is demeaning rather than complimentary to that group. I am a woman because I have a vagina. There is no feminine mind or way of thinking. My brain is not gendered - I am just Navan.

Navan

Yes yes and YES

I find it baffling, in my head I’m 27, I also feel Irish. Does that mean I’m 27 and Irish? What if my child identifies as a dog?

My child almost certainly identifies as godzilla.

I feel the whole ridiculous trans thing is a massive step backwards. You shouldn't be defined by your colour, sex, age, height etc anyway.

In identify as a world class neurosurgeon.

Why should I be discriminated against for employment because I hold no medical qualifications?

@ThatsWotSheSaid Except you absolutely do, maybe not so much with Chinese culture, but Japanese? Absolutely.
I mean, yes we are all total nerds, but I know a great many people who watch Japanese movies and anime, read Japanese manga, speak the language (at least a bit), eat the food, play the games etc etc etc. And some of them take it too far (if you are feeling brave google the term weeaboo).

speakout

I also don't understand why many transwomen want to flounce around in kitten heels and lashes.

Ordinary XX women spend most of their time wearing jeans, gym gear, very little or no make up.

What's with the caricature version of women?

It's not really challenging the gender stereotypes that they seem trapped by.
watching a programme on nextflix last night about trans people and a old trans said their are women then their are beauty queens women will do the medical treatment and get the surgery because they don’t want to date women they don’t want a penis and they want to pass beauty queens won’t because they still want to shag men and be seen in the GAY community and want wider society to know they are men because of you look at how actual women dress barr strippers and prom starts real women don’t dress like trans women

This is from a trans person btw

But, how would she know what it felt like to be black, the same as how would any man know what it feels like to be a woman. That's the bit I don't get?

I agree 100%. That's entirely the aspect I don't understand either. The narrative that 'I think I feel like x, y, or z, therefore I AM x, y, or z, and if you don't unquestioningly agree you're a hateful bigot' is risible.