Can You Change Your Race? | Decoded | MTV News

Seems like you can’t go anywhere this week with hearing about Rachel Dolezal, the former Spokane, WA NAACP leader who pretended to be black. While everyone pretty much agrees she’s crazy, what are the actual questions this controversy has raised? Can someone actually change their race? Franchesca has some THOUGHTS for this week’s bonus Decoded!

Discuss your thoughts in the comments! Franchesca will be back next week to respond!

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[HeirOfGlee]

Anyone remember that chappelle skit when he was the leader of the kkk but he was a blind black man thinking he was white?

[jakobhopfer]

If race is a social construct why can't she choose to identify as whatever she wants?

[RihannaIsIluminati]

I'm a black person who grew up in an affluent suburban neighborhood where white and Asian people are the predominant racial groups. I have never been treated differently than my peers for being black. I don't feel like my experience is shared by anyone other than me as an individual. My struggles are my own and my experience is truly unique, as is every person's experience.

[SixGraders]

Here's a mindfuck. Replace the word "race" with "gender"

[biologicallyyaseen]

Race = Social construct, cannot be changed. Gender = Social construct, can be changed..wut

[stella]

I agree with everything you said about race in the first half. But then my issue is... wouldn't that all still be true if you replaced the word "race" with "gender"?  That's where I feel like it gets messy. Gender is invented and influences how people are treated. It causes stereotyping and results in discrimination. Being female isn't wearing makeup or dresses or having long hair. And so on and so on. I'm just exhausted by this whole situation.

[UdoADHD]

I just disagree. I am not defined necessarily by the history of other people who happen to look like me. If I want to change my race, I have the right to do so because I define who I am.

[asiimwen.]

I don't understand how you can be against being transracial but support being transgender. If you feel like a female but you are genetically a male, your feelings are based on stereotypes. There are no certain feelings that only females feel or only men feel. And same thing with being transracial. People say you can't feel like a certain race because there are no feelings specific to certain races. But you can't say that for being transgender and not say the same for being transracial. That just doesn't make sense. The way I see it, you either have to support both or support neither. If you disagree, I want to hear your point of view.

[origamilester]

I still don't understand how changing your race is wrong, but changing your gender isn't.

[bradleybindle]

the amount of mental backflipping in this video is comical.

[chescaleigh]

side note, I should've said "GENETICALLY we're not different". Instead I said biologically. But you feel me.

[blehbleh]

"..they have ALWAYS identified..."
Sorry, not all of trans people identify their gender identity the moment they are born and I also think that statement erases people whose gender identity are fluid.

[albertlouisher]

Race isn't a social construct, lmfao. You can look at someones bones and tell what race they are!

[jons]

I can’t change my race, but my effective race has changed depending on the society that I’m in. I am multiracial: part white, part middle-eastern. My wife is very white. In the North, if people don’t see our wedding bands, they think my wife and I are siblings (i.e. that I am white). But in the South and in the Southwest, we’ve gotten trouble for being a mixed-race couple (i.e. that I am not white).

So in some parts of the country I am considered white, and in others I am not. Just more proof that race is indeed a construct. As my appearance and lived experiences have not changed between states.

[legoexplosion]

You act like saying "we're all apart of the human race", is a bad thing. Wouldn't you much rather have everyone live in harmony in the same race? That would cut out racism, right? Would you rather have blacks be separate from everyone else? Sounds racist to me.

[Korajiyo]

>"You can't just go back in time and live the experiences of that race"
I mean, even if you were born black today, you wouldn't be able to face and truly understand the racism faced by black people 70+ years ago.

And race really isn't a social construct. You have genes that tell your skin to be black. Billy across the street doesn't have that gene. You're biologically different. Saying you're not biologically different is just outright incorrect. You're biologically different from your own mother.

[pavelthefabulous]

You can't change your race, which is precisely why judging someone's social standing or level of privilege based off of his race is so horrible.

[becathist]

At this point in this intense and endless string of fuckery, I genuinely believe that she needs help, and for that I'm able to have compassion.

That being said... No, you cannot change your race. I’ve seen a great many people attempt to rationalize it by saying “she understands the complexity of racism, she's done so many good things!” But does she really? Does she really understand it? Because from where I’m sitting, one would think she would see the incredible irony of usurping spaces created for black voices, spaces that black women have to fight for, in order to claim them for herself. If she REALLY understood the complexities of racism, she'd know the importance of being a white woman presenting herself as an authentic ally doing great work (like many before her!) without fetishizing the experience of marginalization. If she really understood racism she'd acknowledge that you can't speak over black folks about racism while refusing to abandon your privileges as a white woman.

And here she is not only defending the space she claimed for herself, but taking up even MORE space that the media is choosing to give her instead of reporting on actual violence against actual black women, black girls like Arnesha Bowers. She is STILL doing the one thing she has fooled herself into believing that she was fighting against, the one thing that she is most guilty of contributing to:  America’s legacy of racism through the erasure of black women.

[poshzombie]

It still doesn't completely sink in for me how this is qualitatively different from changing sex. Gender and sexual orientation also has a weight of history and culture that you inherit. Still on the fence with this one.

[badlydrawnturtle]

My view before watching the video: There are two approaches to take with this question.
1. You can take the position that race doesn't objectively exist (which is true from the standpoint of biology), so trying to change it would be a nonsensical proposition.
2. Or you can take the stance that race is a socially meaningful designation (not necessarily a good meaning, just that it carries a meaning that is relatively consistent and allows for communication on the topic), in which case race is decided by various factors such as where your recent ancestors came from (which you cannot change) the color of your skin (which you can change either cosmetically or, with greater effort, more permanently), and facial structure (which you can change with some difficulty through surgery). You can therefore change your race to the extent that you can change the factors the designation is based on; so if people are talking about race in the context of ancestry you can't, but if people are talking about race in the context of physical appearance, you can. The catch here is that, although people usually identify race by physical appearance, they intend the designation to reflect ancestry; this means it is possible to fool people into thinking you are a different race than the definition would properly place you as by changing your physical appearance even when the race in question is based on ancestry.


Post-watch edit: Nothing I particularly disagree with was said, except for that part about experiencing how your ancestors lived. Last I checked, you can't experience something you aren't around for. I'm technically half-Jewish, but I don't have any emotional attachment to what happened to Jews in the past beyond what I would if I wasn't Jewish at all. In fact, I view an over-emphasis on your own ancestors' struggles above other people's to be egotistical and immoral.