It's slightly different since it's my patrilineal heritage, but I'm very predominantly white while very much stressing to people that I'm Mexican. I take pride in it. The premise is actually not at all new. It's highly similar, if not the same, to choosing one's nation. This has been recognized since the early twentieth century. The nation is a psychological construct of identity. Usually, this comes out of heritage, such as in my own case, no matter how distant, but there are cases like this as well. This should be expected in a country with such large differences in "nations" or races as the average person would think of it. In sum, this isn't unheard of.

So, you're saying it's okay for people to go put on blackface and misrepresent themselves, as long as they *feel* like they're black?

I'm saying that it isn't a misrepresentation of that is their own identity.

if*

Race is defined by physical characteristics, not one's philosophy, actions, or anything else, but it is also a defined social construct that at one point was created by men, so it doesn't particularly bother me that some people choose to identify in such a way that doesn't match societal expectations. Race is just a matter of conformity and a way to segregate anyway.

Race should not be a choice damnit. this is frickin' ridiculous

She wants to identify wi the African American race, so fucking what....it's a free country.

On a parallel point and question:
Do you think it's okay for someone born and raised in Scotland or Zimbabwe to "misrepresent" themselves (quotations because I don't agree with that word choice) by touting around an American flag because they feel like they're American?

People should not be forced into categories that are socially constructed and work to raise certain people up and bring certain people down.

Most people understand race as something immutable about ourselves, just like gender. Why does it have to be immutable though? What's so morally egregious about not accepting or wanting a physical attribute about yourself and striving to change it?

Looks like the colored her skin and hair. Meets the criteria for NAACP right?

*she colored...

Reading into this particular case a bit more, it definitely seems like this person implied a lot of other false narratives to build the case that she was born this way, and considering she's trying to represent an organization dealing with the issues that come with being born a person of color, that's pretty damning of her.

"She wants to identify wi the African American race, so fucking what....it's a free country."

My question is, does this mean she has forfeited her White Privilege? Is she now more likely to get stopped and harassed by the police, less likely to get approved for a home loan, get called the "N word" in public, etc.? If not, she's clearly cheating and has a manifestly unfair advantage in life over the cisracial that needs to be corrected with some disfirmitive action.

So it's unfair to be black and not be harrassed?

Tolstoy, those are not characteristics of being black.

@gunfighter - she is just copying what I recently confessed to..

she actually got the negroplasty though

No... just no...

Firstly I'd just like to... no. No. No no no no.

Just no.

Who cars what color she is, I'd that's how she self- identifies. The hypocrisy on this is AWESOME. If she decided she self-identified as a man and lived that way most of her critics would be praising her.

So what is it? Do feeling of self-identification that contradict you're genetic true self have meaning or not?!?

Further.... WAS she or was she not doing a good job with the NCAAP? If she was, what difference does it make what color she is?

I don't think the discussion is centered around what she has done for the NAACP. It's people suggesting that a race is a biological thing, not a social construction that can be altered with, like most social constructions, time.

I purely consider it biological, but I also don't consider it important either

Krellin, I dont care whether or she runs NAACP. If someone white (which it appears to be so) was running NAACP and doing a good, I don't care. The problem is that you don't self identify race. It's not psychological. It's not behavioral. It is a purely predetermined, genetic, physical attribute. It's like gender and sex. Race is like sex but unfortunately there is no "gender equivalent" to race.

Tell that to Bruce-catlyn or whatever

Again who cares, if the person is doing right by her job.

Some religions are analogous to a race or ethnicity, but Yoyo, I do not see why she can't identify as black. Those things you listed are predetermined too, but they are changeable once someone has reached a competent point in their life when they understand the parameters of the characteristics they were assigned at birth and whether or not they fit their true self or not. How is race somehow different?

Why would you care whether people identify with what they look like at birth or not? And if you don't care, why would you care about someone changing their outward appearance to match their identity?

I feel like the huge difference in this particular case, where she really overstepped her bounds, is when she likely falsified at least one (specifically the most recent) hate crime (a death threat found in the NAACP PO box), and by far when she lied about her family and parentage. That's too far.

Do you guys know what cultural approriation is? That is what you are defending.

Agreed TrPrado, this particular woman in this particular case falsified her past to give a wrong account of who she is and where she comes from, which is relevant for her position. If she had come clean and acknowledged from a young age she was white and wanted to change that, it would be a different story, but I also don't see how being truthful about that could have landed her the role she has in the NAACP. Just like Caitlyn Jenner won't be leading any women's rights rallies anytime soon.