Transracial: Is There Such a Thing?

People of Different Races

The recent news items on Rachel Dolezal and those on cultural appropriation have sparked many conversations among myself and friends. In those conversations people have asked,"what is the difference between race & ethnicity" and "can people be trans-racial or trans-ethnic?"  My answer is, that while one cannot be trans-racial, one can be trans-ethnic.

Race, is the identification of a group of people based on biological characteristics: physical characteristics that are transmitted from one generation to the next through DNA. One cannot change racial markers as identified by geneticists (DNA indicators).  

Ethnicity, on the other hand, is created by the characteristics taught by a people and transmitted from generation to generation through learning. That would include worldview, language, traditions, dress, music, hairstyles, communication styles, attitudinal systems, etc. Ethnicity can be learned by anyone. In fact EVERY group that immigrated to the US has become "American" by the third generation because they have adopted American English as first language, assimilated in looks, dress, attitudes, and even media use to mainstream Americans. They become American. Immigrants become trans-ethnic or fail to become upwardly mobile. Everyday groups of people adopt new ethnicities. They can change their worldview, change the way they talk, they walk, they think, and even exist.

A friend asked me, "what is wrong with Rachel Dolezal saying she is Black?" Well, there is nothing wrong with saying she identifies with Black people. But, pretending to be Black is like someone pretending to have a Ph.D. when they don't have one. I am offended by that because I worked hard to earn a doctorate and the respect that comes with it. So I am offended when people start calling themselves Dr. when they have not completed a degree program and had a degree conferred upon them by a legitimate institution (one established by the state legislature and validated by the appropriate accreditation bodies). I don't even want to hear them say, "I identify as a Ph.D."

Racial and ethnic identification lend certain credibility to experiences, narratives, behaviors, attitudes, and values.

When I talk about the trepidation of living in an area where the Confederate flag was flown, my narrative will carry more weight than that of a white person who lived under that same flag. When I talk about being followed in a store, my outrage is more understandable than that of a white person being followed for reasons other than his/her race.  When I tell a student of colour that their work is not up to par, they don't wonder if I am saying that because they are not white. I have certain street "creds".

A White person claiming to be Black has the advantage of being able to walk out of the oppression whenever they want to.

I had a friend many years ago who was white and the pastor of a church in a Black denomination. He had been embedded in the Black community for decades and had mixed children. Most people thought he was Black because he looked like many very fair Black people and families from the south.  The thing was that no matter how embedded he was in the community, how active he was for the cause, what his worldview was or any of that, when we walked into a restaurant where they were slow to serve Black people he could just get up and move to a table by himself and be served. He could apply for a job, not list himself as White and never wonder if his race would keep him from getting the job. He had choices that I did not.

Here is a set of twins, two girls born at the same time and of the same parents. One is black and one is white. Despite their shared genes and same parents they will be treated differently.

Twins Maria and Lucy Aylme of the UK

Rachel Dolezal can say that she identifies closely with Black people. That seems to be true. She adopted Black ethnic characteristics. But, she can never be racially Black, no matter who she tells herself and the world that she is.

Rachel Dolezal



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Dr. Marquita Byrd

Rachel Dolezal "I identify as Black", Can She Do That?

Rachel Dolezal has been stripped of her job, community positions,  and credibility because she lied about who she is. She has been passing as Black! When asked if she was Black in a recent interview, she answered "I identify as Black".  Her parents say she is white, but in various times and contexts, she has identified as white, mixed and Black. But, I ain't mad at Rachel because her dilemma has stimulated a great deal of conversation about what race and ethnicity mean in the political, economic and social arenas.

Rachel is right about one thing, racial identity is a complex issue.

Race is a social construct that humans use to talk about variations among human beings based on biological characteristics. Race is something that human beings made up and in reality does not exist. We all have the DNA of one woman, we shall call her Eve. Biogeneticists tell us that she hails from the Sub-Sahara of Africa or Asia and lived about 140 thousand years ago. Every single person on the planet carries her DNA in the mitochondrial part of our cells. So in fact, biologically we are one race, the human one, and we are all siblings.

Can you tell who is who?

Though there are no races of human beings, the concept of race is very powerful. We group people based on what we perceive as significant biological characteristics such as skin colour, hair texture and facial features. It dictates who we think we are, who we love, who we hate, where we live and at one point in the US it even dictated where we could be buried. Race is especially important when it comes to the allocation of resources because we determine who gets what based on it. Because we say that race is based on biologically determined characteristics it cannot be changed.

One of the first characteristics we use to identify people is race, along with gender and age. However, the fact is that visually, racial determination is extremely unreliable. There are people in every race ranging from light to dark complexions, sporting curly to straight hair, with broad to thin features.  That's why Rachel could pass so easily, because there are many African Americans who look just like her in her current presentation.

Unlike race, ethnicity is not bound by biology.

Ethnicity is determined by those characteristics or artifacts that are learned by a group of people and are taught from generation to generation. Language, values, traditions, and worldview are just a few of the things that are included in one's ethnicity. Foods, processes and even ways of thinking are part of one's ethnic group. Because ethnicity is learned, anyone can adopt or identify with another ethnicity. People come here from all over the world and become American, both a nationality AND ethnicity. 

One can change one's ethnicity within a lifetime. Learning to speak the language or dialect, adopting ways of movement and mannerisms, acquiring a different world perspective, making different food choices and even choosing hair styles can be part of choosing a new ethnicity. Therefore, I think that people can be trans-ethnic because they can learn new things.  However, while they can change all the learned things, THEY CANNOT CHANGE THEIR BIOLOGY.

Rachel Dolezal's crime is not that she changed her ethnicity, but that she lied about her race. 

It is the lie that destroyed her credibility. How can we believe anything she says, how can we accurately interpret her behavior if we don't know who she is? If she lied about her race, what other things did she lie about? Her lie even damaged the reputation and credibility of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP. They were fooled, bamboozled and it leads people to question the capabilities of the organization itself. Dolezal could have accomplished the same things she accomplished while passing for Black as her own self. Membership and leadership in the NAACP are not dependent upon race, but upon intent, purpose, capabilities and hard work. Whatever she was trying to do has been undermined or even destroyed. Lies can do that to a life.

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Dr. Marquita Byrd