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Can someone be transracial?
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Being transracial cannot compare to being transgender

The argument that transracial people should be accepted because transgender people are is invalid. Transgendered people have experienced hate crime and violence, so it is unfair to compare them to transracial people.
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The Argument

Often, advocates for transracial individuals mention the transgender community as a way to defend their opinions and validity. Throughout history, transgender people have experienced discrimination and violence. Every year, a large number of Black and Latina transgender women are targeted and murdered for being transgender. There have never been any recorded cases of hate crimes or violence against a transracial person, proving the two terms cannot be compared.[1] The decision to identify as transracial is an active choice a person makes, whereas transgender people are born into the wrong body so they have to transition in order to feel physically and mentally comfortable. Transracial people change race only after being submerged in the culture.[2] Gender is assigned to a person at birth, but race and ethnicity are rooted in history and culture. Transgender people have experienced hate crimes and physically transitioning is a long, expensive, and painful process. Transracial people cannot compare themselves to a minority group that is heavily discriminated against.[3]

Counter arguments

Transgender and transracial individuals can be compared because they are both transitioning from the body they were born with. Trans people have a long history of violence and discrimination because the term has been well-known for decades. Transracialism is a new term, explaining why it is not widely accepted yet. When more individuals discover they identify as transracial, the movement will gain more popularity and acceptance.

Proponents

Premises

[P1] Transracial individuals use the transgender community to ague their legitimacy. [P2] Transgender people have a history of expereince hate crimes and violence. [P3] Being transracial is a choice a person makes, whereas being transgender is not a choice. [P4] Therefore, transracial people cannot compare their experiences to those of the transgender community.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P3] Transracial is a new term, so it cannot have a history of hate crimes or violence.

References

  1. https://medium.com/verve-up/transracial-is-not-the-new-transgender-why-race-and-gender-are-not-synonymous-b2c688ef0fae
  2. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/12/comparison-transgender-people-rachel-dolezal
  3. https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/head/article/42208/1/transgender-is-not-the-same-as-appropriating-an-ethnicity
This page was last edited on Monday, 7 Sep 2020 at 07:41 UTC

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