Yes, you can identify as “transracial”. You can also affirm your gender

This article is a direct response to the article “No, you can’t identify as ‘transracial’. But you can affirm your gender”, hence the title.

First of all, “transracial” is an outdated term for the trace community. Although words can have many meanings, majority of the trace community have opted to no longer use the term associated with transracial adoptees to avoid confusion, and instead shorten it to “trace” or say “diaracial”. Someone who is trace or diaracial identifies as a race other than the one they physically are or the one they were born as. I have more information on those kinds of identities in my article here.

Now, let’s get into the article that this one is referencing. As a trace and transgender person, I’m going to debunk this line-by-line, beginning from its first subheading.

Photo by Matheus Viana on Unsplash

“Race and gender are not built the same”

“Unlike gender, race presents as categorised (often physical) traits that are socially constructed and understood.”

This is the first big mistake. The author isn’t quite hitting the spot on what gender and sex are.

Gender and sex are social constructs based on physical traits such as sex chromosomes and genitals, but there’s so much nuance to this that it’s never black and white. However, when a baby is born, their genitals are usually examined to determine which sex category they fit best into, and then they’re assigned a socially-constructed gender role as either a male or a female, and may be raised in a certain way based on that assignment. Later in life, they may discover that the gender roles assigned to them and/or the sex of their body doesn’t match how they feel internally.

All-in-all, biological gender (AKA sex) is based on physical traits, and (internal) gender is based on societal traits, but generally initially assigned based on biology. Therefore, a correct way to say the sentence would be “like gender and sex, race presents as categorised (often physical) traits that are socially constructed and understood”.

“You can’t inherit your gender, this is internal and something individual to you — but you do inherit the social construct of race.”

You do actually inherit your (initial) biological gender; you receive your sex chromosomes and everything else that makes up sex from your biological parents, just like with all your genes. If you didn’t inherit sex, then species in which females fertilise their own eggs would be able to produce male offspring (they can’t).

Now, just like gender, race can be both an internal identity and an external, biological expression. Internal race does not have to match external race, just like how internal gender does not have to match sex. So you do, to an extent, inherit physical traits like race and sex from your biological parents, but you probably don’t inherit your internal gender and internal race.

However, in saying all that, there’s still the point that race is hardly biological, and far more just a social construct used to separate different groups in our societal hierarchy; the same goes for sex, which isn’t as binary as we tend to think and has a lot of diversity. In fact, there’s more genetic difference within groups of the same race than between groups. But something being a social construct doesn’t invalidate one’s identity around it; just like gender! Things are important because we decide they’re important, like how we’ve decided that ancestry has any relevance to one’s individual identity; but things we decide can be changed. And wouldn’t it be more harmful to force people into groups in a way that only exists in order to oppress some of those groups? Wouldn’t it be far more progressive to let people be fluid among those groups? Wouldn’t that be the best step before completely deconstructing those groups?

“There is also much more to one’s racial identity than physical appearance — it’s also about culture, community, connection and even trauma.”

True, but same goes for gender, especially women. There is community, connection, and shared trauma that often comes with being viewed as a woman in a patriarchal and misogynistic society. There can even be inherited trauma around being a woman. However, anyone is allowed to identify as a woman regardless of whether they share this trauma. Their identity does not invalidate the trauma of women, nor does the trauma or lack thereof invalidate one’s gender identity. Additionally, no one is claiming to have trauma they don’t have just by identifying as something that isn’t (or shouldn’t be) defined by trauma.

“While multicultural communities and LGBTQ+ experiences of discrimination are sometimes compared, it is important to understand these experiences are different and complex. This is particularly the case, for example, in considering trans people of colour and their experiences of both racism and transphobia.

“People who face discrimination based on their race or cultural background can usually go home to members of their family who understand them. This is often not the case for trans and gender diverse people.”

I agree, with the addition that it’s physical race, and not necessarily internal race. And while discrimination against trace people isn’t very wide-spread because the phenomenon is largely unknown, it is a thing, and something that most trace people don’t have a support system for. The discrimination against people of colour, transgender people, and trace people, are all different forms of discrimination and may have different effects, but they’re discrimination nonetheless.

“Race and gender have very different histories, understandings, experiences, and implications in the face of discrimination. The very idea of being able to transition to a difference race discredits trans and gender diverse people’s experiences of gender affirmation.”

I agree with the first sentence. For the next sentence, I ask why. I recognise that race and gender are different things, however for me and many others, I experience my trace and transgender identity in very similar ways. I want to affirm my race just as much as my gender because they both make me dysphoric, and transitioning to either would make me euphoric and more comfortable in my body.

“[The idea of being able to transition to a different race] also undermines the importance of cultural connections for many communities.”

Again, I ask why. A small population of trace people won’t affect cultural connections. Someone transitioning out of the culture they were born into will not diminish connections for anyone else, and that person will gain new connections in their new culture. These connections may not be exactly the same as the ones between those born into the cultures, but they can be just as important. Malaika Kubwa, otherwise known as Martina Big, transitioned to being black, and was accepted into her trace culture through a baptism in Kenya. She was supported by her new community, and in no way undermined their culture.

Malaika Kubwa

“Picking and choosing”

“[Oli] London…has actively chosen a “transracial” identity. But trans and gender diverse people’s decision to transition (whether that be social, medical and/or legal) is almost always involuntary and out of necessity to live their lives authentically.”

Oli London has become vocally transphobic since that article was written, so I do not consider him to be a good representation of the trace community. However, for argument’s sake, let’s take a hypothetical trace person who chose their trace identity, perhaps for aesthetic purposes. Obviously if they don’t transition, their identity affects no one. And if they do transition, that is entirely their decision and their right to bodily autonomy; this in no way affects transgender people. Nor would someone who voluntarily transitions their gender/sex for non-dysphoric reasons affect transgender people who do so out of necessity.

Everyone should be allowed to have control over their body and be able to change it however they like, and if that right is recognised, then it would make it more accessible to those who change their body because of dysphoria. Additionally, if social transition and experimentation with gender became popularised, it would make it easier to exist in society as a transgender person.

Conflating racial identity with gender identity implies that being trans is a choice, and therefore so is race. The reality is that transitioning as a trans person is a difficult and taxing process, one that can be dangerous but also lifesaving and celebrated.

Like I said, being transgender can be a choice, and that is just as valid an experience. But moving past that point now.

Majority of the trace people I’ve come across, including myself, don’t choose to be trace. Personally, I was born this way, and it wouldn’t be something I’d want if I had the choice. It’s also likely that trace identities can be due to trauma.

Transition not being available for trace people can sometimes be as dangerous as it is for transgender people. Bleaching your skin is something some trace people do because they have no other way to transition, and that is highly dangerous; worst case scenario being mercury poisoning. And there have been no studies on suicidality in trace people, but I’m sure you can imagine that feeling like you don’t belong in your own body in any way can lead to mental health issues, including suicidal ideation.

It is racist to think someone can pick and choose parts of a race or culture they like, then distance themselves from that culture when it suits them. They avoid the burden of discrimination while reaping the rewards of white privilege, taking the necessary resources and voices from the communities who need it.

This is just a massive assumption. If this is about transition, which it is, then a fully-transitioned trace person would be just as vulnerable to racial discrimination as anyone else who is bodily that race. They can now only distance themselves from racial discrimination and “reap the rewards of white privilege” as much as anyone else who is bodily that race. There are many trace people who identify as transwhite, as in they’re born bodily non-white but identify as white, and the previous sentence applies to them as well, if they were to transition to the point they pass. There are even many people who are bodily non-white but are white-passing and will gain benefits from white privilege, and thus the argument that it’s racist to not face all the troubles of the race you identify as is racist in itself.

If the argument is that a born-white person who transitions to being black using melanin supplements can detransition by stopping their use of melanin and thus restore their white privilege, then this would likely be due to them no longer identifying as black. Detransition is a separate issue, though something that is just as valid. The existence of detransitioners should not invalidate the existence of trans people. For example, a transwoman having the option to detransition and have male privilege again does not invalidate their identity as a woman.

Secondly, trace people are not taking resources. I can’t even imagine what resources the author is referring to. But arguments like this are generally about something that capitalism is the cause of, which means that someone having an identity is not at all the problem; the system is. Erasing the people who are using resources won’t solve the root problem of a restriction on resources.

Trace people aren’t taking voices either. Majority of people who speak on racial issues are people who are bodily those races. This will always be the cases, as trans people of all types are a minority. Additionally, Nkechi Amare Diallo is a person who identifies as transblack, and she was an activist for people of colour. She spoke on issues that genuinely affected her as someone who was passing as black for ten years, and by doing so she was uplifting other POC voices, rather than stealing them.

The gender binary we’ve come to think of as usual — male and female — has previously been enforced upon people, cultures and countries through colonisation. Rigid understandings of gender are imposed upon cultures where gender fluidity was previously more accepted.

Correct! If we’re demolishing rigid understandings of gender that were enforced by colonisation, why don’t we also demolish rigid understandings of race that were enforced by colonisation?

Instead of the pursuit of fame and followers, we need to prioritise amplifying the experiences of diverse peoples in ways that not only focus on discrimination and abuse, but also celebrate people being their authentic selves.

This is so true and so important, which is why I’m going to end this piece with that quote, but with the exact opposite intentions to its author.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash