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

It's Fraud. Read somewhere that someone 45 feels 65 does that mean they get to claim state pension 20 years early!

If he didn't shave his head he would look European and how insulting to those mixed race

it also should not matter whether he calls himself black as money should not be handed out based on someones race.

This is different to sex though as race is a spectrum.

If I have one black and three white grandparents what race am I?
It rather depends on skin tone.
A couple of people I know have one black grandparent and society sees them as white.
I know another person who is mixed race but has very very dark skin. Society perceives her as black.

I’m not defending this guy but it isn’t as binary as sex.

Do you know what. I really feel like I have a connection with Spanish culture. I love and can speak the language, I adore the food, visit every year sometimes twice, think the people are fantastic and I enjoy Spanish music and history immensely. The whole culture fascinated me and I "identify" with it far more than I do any British culture.

However I am not dim enough to believe this makes me Spanish. And it would be bloody offensive to the culture I love so much to state it was. People like this actor make me sick, culture (much like sex) is not something you can inherently adopt as your own.

I think people can be what they want but I don’t need to acknowledge it

Oh yay it's Rachel Dolezal all over again. 🙄

it also should not matter whether he calls himself black as money should not be handed out based on someones race

Spoken from a position of privilege no doubt. D you understand why these grants are available?

He appears to have blue eyes and we don't know what his hair would be like. He seems to style himself in a certain way to fit the image he wants to project. That's could be seen as a bit like Rachel Dolezal who is quite obviously very white looking in pictures of her when she was younger.

Yes, he could easily pass as mixed race but ultimately he's not so it feels wrong.

I have never heard such a great big pile of steaming shite in my life!
It’s all such bollocks!!!!!
We have found ourselves in a society where anyone can self identify as FUCKING ANYTHING and it’s NOT FUCKING TRUE!

RaceCarDriver “The belief that your race informs your culture/behaviour is the basis of racism.”

I absolutely do not think that race informs, or especially defines, your culture. I think they are seperate things in the same way that sex and gender are separate. They often overlap or co-incide a lot and in a lot of people

And of course the physicality of being black gives an inner sense of being black.

But I think it a bit preposterous of any actual white person to ‘identify as black ‘.

The thing is, he could be taken for mixed race. And genes being what they are he may or may not have some black chromosomes in his history.

My white Irish father has a very swarthy skin colour (and family is from the West of Ireland!). If this guy had hair I actually think he would look more European. He has definitely cultivated, what to him, would be a black identity. He's not just been treated as black so thought he might as well embrace it, he changed his middle name from David to the African sounding Ekundayo and was a more successful actor once he identified as black / mixed race. If he has been honest about his racial identity then the fund should be facing questions on why he was awarded the grant over a struggling but talented black actor.

He appears to have blue eyes and we don't know what his hair would be like. physical features do not mean you are a certain race there are black people with blue eyes

The vast majority of the transgender movement is a way to control and compartmentalise people into narrow categories rather than to accept that people are individuals. Also, as PPs have said, sex is a biological fact, which cannot be changed, whereas gender is a personal/social preference of behaviour.

Grayson Perry and Eddie Izzard are men who often like to dress up and present in a style that's more stereotypically female, but neither of them claim to BE female, which is as it should be: their male sex cannot be changed, but the dresses and makeup that they choose to wear are just neutral stuff with nothing preventing their being worn by a female or a male.

I am a white British person who really likes curry, but it isn't an either-or choice that I have to make to stop eating curry or to somehow claim to have transformed into an Asian person - as, whilst curry is traditionally considered to be an Asian food, it's just neutral food which can be enjoyed by anybody of any race.

Being female or male, black, Asian or white is just a biological fact and none of them is better or worse than another. In this country (and most western nations), we have equal opportunities of choice and have long left behind the dismal days of 'girls can't do that' or 'that's for white people only' when it comes to personal choices and how you want to live your life.

Stop trying to pigeonhole people and making them feel they need to change WHO THEY ARE because of WHAT THEY CHOOSE TO DO.

He looks mixed race to me. Just because his father and mother present as white, it doesn't mean there isn't black heritage, hence his (mixed race) looks. He very well may have a throw back to dominant black genes.

A lot of Irish are known as 'black Irish', they are descendants of the black moors who were crew and washed up after the Spanish Armada was scattered to the winds in 1588.

@spannablue - I think being gay isn't a choice, or gender dysmorphia, but the new gender fluid type of identity of as transgender surely is a choice?

It's just fraud guys

don't defend him. He has taken the money as he isn't paying it back even though he has been exposed as a liar

I would like to see a picture of his parents/siblings, to be honest his skin doesn’t look very dark to me it is more his features that would make people think he is mixed race. He should undergo genetic testing and if he is found to have no (recent) African heritage should be stripped of the funding that he got under false pretences.

Think he clearly has straight hair that's why he shaves his head

And it's Nov. No sun in the uk he's most likely a regular sun bed user to maintain that tan

Just because he looks mixed race does not mean that his parents are lying to him. I am Irish, I am brunette and tan easily, I have a brother who is a redhead and pale as pale can be and another who looks middle eastern. We 100% sure our parents are not having us on! I recently did an ancestry test and despite being able to trace my family tree back to 1600 (in Ireland) my genes say I am 80% from the midlands UK.
Genes are strange.

I think race and sex are different.

Race is a social categorisation. The award mentioned in the article was allowed for 'mixed race' but literally everyone is mixed race. There's no such thing as a pure bred human. We are all out of Africa if you go back far enough. There's no agreed standard for what makes someone 'mixed race'. It's a nonsense. I can see how people can differ in their interpretation of race.

Sex is a real thing, not a social construct. Male and female are the two halves that we need to reproduce as a species. How people feel or identify can't change that.

So the fact someone has more melanin means they can claim to be mixed race and get extra money?

It's nothing worse than the people who black face for Halloween. It's just wrong.

Couldn't he just have been a white actor who tans easily and how is he maintaining that tan and why shave his head etc
He's playing a part and unless he pays the money back I have zero respect for him

The Spanish Armada connection with dark Irish people is totally untrue.

You can't change your predefined features.

You can change your hair colour, not your race or your sex.

Predefined characteristics* I guess would be more appropriate.

Features would probably include hair colour! Oops.