AIBU to think a white man should not be able to self identify as black

[probablynotrelevant]

AIBU in thinking that you can't self identify as a different race? Where will this all end? Being able to self identify as a different gender is inevitably going to open the floodgates for all kinds of other 'self identifying' - WTF is going on?!

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/anthony-ekundayo-lennon-black-white-theatre-director-job-people-of-colour-actor-artist-tawala-a8617011.html

Or am I missing something here and essentially humanity is better off as identifying as whatever the hell they like, no matter actual reality, where men are women, black is white, cats are dogs etc etc

@VenusInSpurs just no. Race is just your physical element. The belief that your race informs your culture/behaviour is the basis of racism. I am my race because of my genes. It in no way reflects on me as a person. Nothing that I will do can change that. To say otherwise is a bit racist. I am my personality and beliefs not the stereotype attached to people who share my genetic make up.

I read it!!
He says his parents are indesputably white but when i saw him i could help but wonder if his parents are indesputably his parents. At first glance there may be more to this. Are his parents pushing water uphil expecting him to believe that they are both of them his real parents?

World's gone fucking mad.

YANBU. I bet he doesn't get half the grief Rachel Dolezal did.

And IMO gender is no different at all

He looks like a tanned white man. What part of Africa is he even claiming to be from?

Claiming to identify as*^

It’s all a load of nonsense

Ratunholypoly no, not another trans bashing thread, so I will decline to fuck off. However, I was taken aback when reading his story, as it does raise very interesting questions, about self identifying as a concept. And it cannot be denied that there are stark similarities with the gender debate, as it is at the moment.

Yes Race. And we could say the same about sex.

Tricky one. If the world sees him as a black man then I’m not sure it’s so controversial, he’s sort of forced to identify as a black man isn’t he? otherwise he’d have to go round telling them at every casting or audition that he’s not black, and that would be weird. Although it does seem slightly wrong he should benefit from that grant

True, he'll never get the abuse Rachel Dolzeal does.

To be honest I'd be surprised if his Dad was his Dad. Also he has experienced the negatives of growing up 'black' as people perceived him to be so.

He's got more right to identify as black than any TIM would have to call themselves a Woman tbf.

I read about this earlier and found it a useful case study in illustrating the problem with self-id.

I would be interested to see a racial DNA profile. I think it’s far from clear that he’s Anglo-Saxon. He reminds me very much of Ben Kingsley.

Tbh I don't blame him. I'm mixed race and could also be considered racially ambiguous. One of my siblings who looks completely white has often said how it's sometimes just so much easier to navigate through life being white or having people think that you are.

Race and sex are immutable. So from that perspective it's not the same as gender. Men can't be women - no matter how passable they look. A black man can't be white - no matter how passable they look. But how society treat you as a result of this is something else entirely.

He says that he experienced racism because people thought he was black and treated him badly because of it. So, to him, he hasn't had white privilege and feels more like a black man than a white one. I can see where he is coming from.

So I guess he could say that he feels black, in the sense of shared experience. But that is not the same as being black, just as transwomen might feel that they are women, but that doesn't make it biologically true.

He’s clearly white so I’m not sure where the confusion has arisen? He’s obviously changed his name to appear black though, as I doubt his parents gave him the middle name “Ekundayo”.

I thought 'he is clearly not white'.

His parents have a lot to answer for. They are messing with him.

So white men can be anything now? I wonder how easy it would be if this was the other way round?

His parents gave him the middle name David.

The White man self-identifying as a black man.

For people not clicking on the article.

People shouldn’t be able to identify as anything they’re not.

Google other photos of him Jungster, plenty where he looks like a tanned white guy.

“Sex is just your physical element. The belief that your sex informs your culture/behaviour is the basis of sexism. I am my sex because of my genes. It in no way reflects on me as a person. Nothing that I will do can change that. To say otherwise is a bit sexist. I am my personality and beliefs not the stereotype attached to people who share my genetic make up”

FTFY. How is it different?

If anything, transracialism is more understandable because race is a spectrum. The same people who pledge unconditional support for TWAW are the same people who have a shit fit over this guy and Dolezal. Hypocrisy at its finest.