Comparison
I feel like writing an entire little article about "transracialism" makes it seem like I just want to start one-sided arguments online, but I was talking to my friend about it yesterday and I thought this would be a good refresher since I haven't written in a good two months.
Me and my friend were talking about being transgender, and he mentioned that something he didn't really feel comfortable with was that "if transgender people are valid it would make sense for transracial people to be valid, as well."
I thought this was an interesting proposal—interesting enough to write about it. First of all, I'm going to sound like every other person ever, but gender is a social construct; it is ever changing with every generation. It's an identity, not a constant. This is only possible because sex and gender are different. The sexes have stayed the same for thousands and thousands of years, but our perception of gender hasn't.
Culture is also dependent on the surrounding society, but it's not entirely an identity. Culture relies on your environment. I think that is the most defining factor that seperates the two. Yes, culture is a major part of your identity, but it's not something you choose to follow. It's kind of like how nobody chooses what happens in their childhood, yet we all still get nostalgic for things we loved when we were once young. It's not a controllable factor because it's what happens to surround us as we grow.
You cannot change what already happened. I think culture is important to mention because people who claim to be transracial are really hoping to transition their ehtnicity. Ethnicity is what makes up the culture, yet they claim to change races. That is because race is so heavily associated with culture, which is unnchangable. Even if you are subjected to a different culture and feel that you embody it, you're not changing your race. Your bone structure will not change because you are insecure.
On top of all that, being transracial feels automatically faulty since there's not natural desire to change your race that stems from a discomfort with what you're associated with; the desire to change your race begins with dissatisfaction. Changing yourself because you're dissatisfied will only ever worsen the problem; that is why you are encouraged to tackle your insecurities head-on. The hedonic treadmill is real!
Some people might say that, "That's the same thing as being transgender! This means being trans ISN'T VALID!!!" but that's not the case. People don't transition in terms of gender because they're dissatisfied with their own: people transition in terms of gender because they're dissatisfied with the label being put on them feeling incorrect and then are forced to meet a certain expectation on the daily because they are considered to fall under a label that they don't actually fall under.
Of course, not everything is as black and white as it seems. I think there are some cases where the lines wiggle, but they don't move. However, all the outliers I can think of only prove my point. For exmaple, I heard of this white woman who had lived her entire life in Japan, only knew Japanese, didn't have any connection to her parents culture, etc. but was insecure because she was always thought of as some random white girl to her peers. She expressed a lot of discomfort with the fact that she felt Japanese in every way, but nobody would see her as Japanese. However, I don't consider this being transracial: as I said earlier, there's no transition. It's a natural attachment to your surroundings from a young age. She's not transitioning.
Something my friend brought up was, "What if you're some white guy and you end up spending the majority of your time in black spaces and are subjected to black culture (in America, I assume)?" To this, even if the kid in question is heavily exposed to black culture, he wouldn't be considered black because, not only is it based on your biology, but you still spend a very significant fraction of time not in those spaces. That time, since it's historically more connected to you, is important.
But this brings up another problem. Does this mean immigrants, for example, who have left their home countries in pursuit of a better life are no longer their "original" ethnicity? By my logic, they wouldn't be surrounded by those spaces anymore and would no longer be valid! To this, I disagree. There are a million factors that affect where we stand sociologically. The association of race and ethnicity that I mentioned earlier is important: if you're a second generation immigrant and have no physical connection to your past culture (well, I hope you at least have your family), the association your race has to that culture is important. You know that your own family is from there and it will give you a natural desire to connect with it, if not at least learn about it. But, in a lot of cases, immigrant children who aren't raised around the culture of their parents don't identify with it. They oftentimes identify soley with the nation they currently reside in. There's nothing wrong with that; a lot of kids aren't going to care about that connection because it seems pointless.
I think that sort of sums up my point. At the end of the day, while your ethnicity is dependent on factors you can't control, gender is. That is why it's logical to be transgender and illogical to be transracial. At the end of the day, though, I can't control anything. If someone in a situation like this considered themselves transracial, I couldn't argue. It's not my place to dictate what other people call themselves. I think that's all I have to say for now.
I had a lot of fun writing this as a refresher after so long. I hope this more in-depth explanation will encourage some more people to think about the basics of their opinions: if you know something is wrong, ask WHY it is wrong. What makes something fundamentally immoral, immoral? You must question the unquestionable if you ever want to move further; it's only by doing so that we will ever progress in terms of morals. You need that basic understanding to work up from. If the basics are flawed, everything else will follow. Think deeply!
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