Self ID: White man identifies as African (ok not really feminism)

[Needmoresleep]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6350675/White-theatre-director-classes-born-African.html

I know a black colleague who self identifies as an Asian. He has never lived there and doesn’t speak the language. He loves the culture and has been there once as a tourist only. I always think of him when people talk about transgender. While ethnicity is subject to the person’s feeling and self identification, just because someone thinks they are Japanese doesn’t make them Japanese.

Exactly. This guy appears to have a long history of identifying as African and largely appears to be accepted as African.

But he is not.

The parallels with transgender Self ID are there.

I am not happy about being expected to accept transgender women as women, in spaces restricted to women, so will have every sympathy if others feel the same about access to support designed for BAMEs. It will be interesting to see what reaction there is, if any.

Not ok. He’s received significant funding and deprived someone else of it.

There’s no safety issue here, but massive appropriation. It’ll be interesting to see the reaction to this. Interesting too to see the comment ‘Sometimes I feel like you are watching me. Watching me to say this equals a black man. Then you're taking it from me, and sticking it on yourself.' because again he’s reducing being black to a costume/performance. I can see why his colleague is uneasy.

White and African are not mutually exclusive. Perfectly possible to be both white and African. Look at South Africa.

I wonder if this guy is claiming any specific African heritage (I note he’s named himself after a pharaoh, does he identify as Egyptian?). If he’s identifying as generic “African” with no further qualification, that adds another level of urgh. Like identifying as Asian but not specifying whether you mean Indian, Chinese, Thai or Japanese.

This is all kinds of wrong. He says he was sometimes mistaken for being mixed race as a young man but there's a huge leap between that 'and adopting an "African identity" - his made up name is Egyptian and Nigerian when he has no heritage from either of those places. He has been taking resources earmarked for BAME people. It's Rachel Dolezal all over again.

Also in the Times today:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/anthony-lennon-my-genes-are-white-but-im-black-v7tmnw7xw?shareToken=642b927eead8fdb8a2075ef9095efe96

Now he sounds very odd (and when I say odd I mean a horrible entitled person) and of course it is wrong that he has built his whole career benefiting from resources for BAME actors.

But in a way, he’s right. Race isn’t binary. You can be a little bit African (urgh also - just African?!) though he doesn’t seem to be which makes it even more offensive. Just like I am a little bit Scottish and a little bit Irish. Like the awful ‘one drop of blood’ thing in the US under segregation laws.

You can’t however, be a little bit Male or a little bit female (check out autocorrect capping up Male but not female - that’s the patriarchy right there).

Interesting how he's treated politely for fraudulently furthering his personal ambitions, whereas Rachel Dolezal was vilified and hounded out of a job where she supported others in furthering their personal ambitions.

Wtf.

yes, the issue here surely is that by applying for funding he has designed someone that it was intended for of that funding

the parallels with men taking spaces on all women shortlists or the Jo Cox Women in Leadership programme are striking

He does actually look mixed race but this is appalling. The money should have gone to someone who was genuinely eligible for it.

I think this is an interesting story. This sort of thing is only going to happen more and more and at least it is getting press attention and showing how unfair self-id is.

RitaFairclough

I am Male or I might be female.
Wow. I never noticed that about auto correct before.
Sorry for digression but I'm amazed!

RitaFairclough

You can’t however, be a little bit Male or a little bit female (check out autocorrect capping up Male but not female - that’s the patriarchy right there).

From The Times:

"The actor Lennie James, later to become famous as a star of The Walking Dead, responds in the documentary by accusing Lennon of cultural appropriation. “Sometimes I feel like you are watching me. Watching me to say this equals a black man. Then you’re taking it from me, and sticking it on yourself.”

I thought that was an interesting point.

And yes completely different (very polite and respectful) reaction to him than to Rachel Dolezal.

From the Times version of the article:

Indeed, as he argued in the book: “Everybody on the planet is African. It’s your choice as to whether you accept it.”

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/anthony-lennon-my-genes-are-white-but-im-black-v7tmnw7xw

This basically takes the idea that you can appropriate someone else's lived biological reality and claim it as your own to another level. If you can be a man but say you have always really been female then it absolutely follows that you can come from generations of all white ancestors and say that you have actually always been black. I can see no difference. Agree that you can have a variety of different ethnic influences in your genes and we may not necessarily know that ourselves let alone in others but given he admits he has only white ancestry this is open racial and cultural appropriation.

And I suppose we ought to refer to him as actually being black or he will scream 'racist' at us all.

Interesting that he takes this stance because he was bullied because he didn't look the same as others. Isn't that the root of trans as well, some boys don't quite fit into the toxic masculinity stereotypes, therefore they just must be female because there is no other alternative in the male world.

It's taking the money meant for others that's wrong. Lots of us get bullied because we don't quite fit in. Ffs, there's no group that doesn't fit into the toxic male world more than females, and bloody hell don't we know it - 2 killed a week by men, god knows how many raped! Taking money and opportunities away from those who have suffered more than you from the same issues is always going to be wrong.

OT but check out autocorrect capping up Male but not female - that’s the patriarchy right there

I had a discussion about this a few weeks ago - it may possibly be because the autocorrect capitalises city names - Malé is the capital of the Maldives. But in that case it should include the accent. If you type female and male then from context it doesn't do this - and if I type male and female, it caps the 'male' initially but then uncaps again when I've typed 'and'. So in this case it's probably Artificial Stupidity rather than patriarchy.

I don't understand why this isn't being greeted with the same outraged response as Rachel Dolezal? Both benefitted from public/charitable funds designed to further the interests, opportunities and representation of BME people.

Are there any differences in their stories that I'm not seeing?

You can love (your perception of) a culture and even call yourself an 'honorary Japanese, Italian' or whatever but it doesn't make you one.

Besides - Africa is a Continent with many different people, cultures, history religions....

I don't see the issue with this one. He appears to have been honest about his family history.
And as others have pointed out, he does appear to be mixed race. And let's face it racial discrimination is largely down to the colour of someone's skin, not who there parents are.

I don't understand why this isn't being greeted with the same outraged response as Rachel Dolezal?

✋✋✋✋ I know - cos he's a man!

Are there any differences in their stories that I'm not seeing?

Aside from their sex (women often seem to be targeted more on SM), perhaps there may be some difference between Britain and the US? we don't have quite the same history of segregation or severe civil rights abuses ... legally enforced in the southern states.

Well..he really does look mixed race, and I can imagine he may have suffered racism as a result of that.
A lot of people in the UK and probably Ireland too ( although I'm not sure) have some African genes way back, and genes can do funny things. I know 2 sisters where one is really European looking and one quite African looking. It happens.
But he shouldn't be building a career on the basis of it, I can see why people are incensed.
It's not exactly the same as sex though because as a pp pointed out a lot of us are mixed heritage, even if it doesn't show, but sex IS binary. You can't be a little bit female.

Also in The Sun

He identifies as black. A white man, born to Irish parents.....

OK transgenderists, explain why this is wrong on so many levels, but men identifying as women is so, so right.....