Transracial (identity)

Transracial people identify as a different race than the one associated with their biological ancestry. They may adjust their appearance to make themselves look more like that race, and they may participate in activities associated with that race.

Controversy over the term

Historically, ''transracial'' has been used to describe parents who adopt a child of a different race.

The use of the term to describe changing racial identity has been criticized by members of the transracial adoption community. Kevin H. Vollmers, executive director of an adoption non-profit, said the term is being "appropriated and co-opted" and that this is a "slap in the face" to transracial adoptees. In June 2015, about two dozen transracial adoptees, transracial parents and academics published an open letter in which they condemned the new usage as "erroneous, ahistorical, and dangerous."

In April 2017, the feminist philosophy journal ''Hypatia'' published an academic paper in support of recognizing transracialism and drawing parallels between transracial and transgender identity. Publication of this paper resulted in considerable controversy. The subject was also explored in '' Trans: Gender and Race in an Age of Unsettled Identities'', a 2016 book by UCLA sociology professor Rogers Brubaker, who argues that the phenomenon, though offensive to many, is psychologically real to many people, and has many examples throughout history.

Examples

* Rachel Dolezal is known for identifying as a black woman despite having been born to white parents. She successfully passed as black, to the extent that she took over leadership of the Spokane branch of the NAACP in 2014, a year before her "outing" in 2015.
* Martina Big, who was featured on '' Maury'' in September 2017, is a woman of white ancestry who identifies as black. Big has had tanning injections administered by a physician to darken her skin and hair.
* Jessica Krug, an associate professor of history and Africana Studies at George Washington University, revealed on September 3, 2020 that she, born to white parents, had been passing as a black woman for her entire professional life.
* Oli London, a British influencer and singer who identifies as Korean, and has had numerous plastic surgeries to confirm his current racial identity. London modelled his appearance on his idol, BTS singer Jimin.
* Margaret Seltzer, a white suburbanite wrote under the assumed name of Margaret Jones a fictitious memoir about a half-Native American girl raised by a disadvantaged African Americans family.

See also

*''Black Like Me''
* Ethnic plastic surgery
* Body dysmorphic disorder
* Pretendian

References

Further reading

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{{Historical definitions of race

Transracial (identity)
Cultural assimilation
Collective identity
Passing (sociology)
Race (human categorization)
Race and society
Subcultures