One of the first few things that come to my mind when discussing about changing someone’s race is Michael Jackson who was known with his ethnic plastic surgery. Some view these procedures as steps towards equal opportunity for members of minority groups. Others see the desire for these procedures as extensions of the social and cultural factors that have led to the widespread oppression and discrimination of these minority groups. When it comes to ethnicity, I think it goes all the way back to the historically based practices related to culture such as language, custom, and ancestry such as African Americans and Arab Americans. Some of us acknowledged that ethnicity is a reflection of what we learned growing up and we believe that makes us culturally different from others. People who are of the same ethnicity usually share a common identity based on their values and norms. Meanwhile, race is tied to visual cues based on physical characteristics such as skin color by which we rank people. In a study on decoding the human genome, scientists have found the DNA of any two people are 99.9 percent identical and that there is “no scientific basis for race”. Does this mean that race is a social construct instead of biologically determined? Looking at it from visual cues perspective, different places might have different versions of interpretation from the same image representation. For example, a person who is considered black in America may be considered white in Brazil just by looking at his appearance. A study by Dupuis-Roy et al found that our brain is wired to identify gender based on facial cues and coloring and I believe that this is something that our brain picked up from the surroundings since we were babies.

Dolezal in her interview claimed herself as a black woman while denying her white parents claim of her not being an African American descent. I personally do not have a really good grasp on the idea of changing one’s racial identity as this is the first time I encounter this kind of issue which makes me more interested to discuss about this. At first, I was thinking that why would someone wants to change their race? Do they want to gain some benefits of being a certain race? I also thought that if we can celebrate the practice of gender transition, what is wrong with racial transition? A professor of Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality at the University of Alberta argues that racial transformation is fundamentally different from gender transformation since race is also determined by ancestry, personal cultural history and societal definitions. Hence ethical considerations of transracial surgery are different from ethical considerations in transsexual surgery. There is also argument on how we are shifting away from an emphasis on ancestral ties or skin color of origin towards an emphasis on racial self-identification. Aside all of that, some defined race as a journey or experience that someone go through in their lives. For example, he might have the journey of a person of color, suffered racial abuse and therefore he was then acknowledged as one of them.

Reading through this issue on the internet, a black trans women said that “By comparison with changing gender, Rachel Dolezal’s misrepresentation led to her professional gain. Not only was she appointed the head of her local NAACP, she also taught classes, sold artwork, and was a paid speaker under the guise of being a black woman. She positioned herself as an authority on racism, oppression, and the black experience despite not having lived or experienced it herself. Dolezal’s new identity also relied on fake parents, fake children, and, of course, darkening her skin and changing her hair to appear racially ambiguous”. Personally, I believe that it falls back to the real intention of that person. If the transition is about being yourself and expressing yourself, then everyone should have the freedom to do so. But, if it mainly for the exploitation of the benefits of being a certain race or gender, then that would be inappropriate. The complicated part is; how are we supposed to know someone’s intention, and do we have the right to do so?

Reference:

Dupuis-Roy et al. Uncovering gender discrimination cues in a realistic setting. Journal of Vision, 2009; 9 (2): 1 DOI: 10.1167/9.2.10