Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Rachel Dolezal is the victim of a lot of hate from a lot of people, and has become the go-to butt of the trans-“joke” on the regressive end of the political spectrum.
Of course you will always have the stereotypical transphobes who hate all things trans to begin with — they immediately took the opportunity to pounce on this new version of trans that they weren’t previously aware of:
But on the anti-Rachel Dolezal team you also find ignorant people who claim to actually support trans rights. People who consider themselves progressives.
It’s those folks I wish to reach with this piece. We have to face that lot of the anti-transracial hate is in fact coming from our own progressive camp, and we’re well overdue in dealing with it.
The fallacy
A lot of the ignorance seems from come from the fallacious idea of assuming that there is only “one” type of trans person out there. This is actually not true. To say that trans folks no longer exists when we intersect with race is an example of biological essentialism, a racist alt-right idea.
Transracial folks have long since been accepted as real and valid by academia. The 2016 book Trans: Gender and Race in an Age of Unsettled Identities by UCLA sociology professor Rogers Brubaker reveals that transracialism is psychologically real to many people, and there are many examples of transracial folks throughout history.
There is no excuse to not accept and validate — much less hate — a transracial person if we are accepting of a transgender person. Biological sex is not something that can ever be medically changed, but we accept transgender people as the identity they desire, regardless of whether or not they do full on sexual reassignment surgeries.
Transracial folks are in the exact same predicament as transgender people. They feel as though they were born the wrong race (something that you cannot change biologically) and they decide to transition so that their outward appearance matches how they are inside.
Related: Please stop asking transracial folks these questions—and accept them
It’s called inclusivity for a reason
To stay congruent with our message of love, we must embrace transracial people in just the same way we embrace transgender people. We cannot invalidate a transracial person and then cry when a transgender person is invalidated. We need to embrace and validate all folks, no matter their background.
A transwoman is a woman and a transracial woman is her preferred race. Basta.
Chances are most of you will never know what it is like to be born as the wrong sex or the wrong race, so have the heart to admit that you have no right to tell these people that their perception of themselves is wrong.
Sadly, even in our own progressive community, there is still a lot of growing that still needs to happen. So, reach out to a transracial, apologize for your ignorance, and tell them you accept and love them. Tell them they are valid — as are you.
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Thank you! Sometimes I feel Mexican, especially after I eat Taco Bell, but sometimes one of those illegal beans cut me off in their stolen truck. I immediately turn white, I am a raceshifting chameleon.
I feel I do very well morphing into the race that fits any situation I find myself in.
Thank you for writing this!!!
Guys, please remember that transracialism absolutely is a thing and not something to joke about. Consider all the persecution faced by members of this community. A third of college kids born as white already identify as non-white but are openly slurred by so-called antiracism activists like the fraud Kendi. There is no provision for their safety or advancement unless they hide their transracial identity and “fake” being their real race with what neurotypicals see as good enough neurotypical evidence, like having a cisracial of that race in your family tree.
Please educate yourself and embrace your local transracials. I promise you they are there, but most of them have to keep it on the downlow like the gays in the 1920s. This is important stuff.
To any transracial reading this, I want you to know that you are heckin’ valid as fuck.
This is so improtant. Much love, xoxox