Thread: "Transracial"?
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monstahh`
faerie graveyard
12674.02
monstahh` is offline
 
#5
Old 11-22-2017, 12:09 PM

My adoptive sister is at last part Mexican. (we were both adopted though, just FYI)
So I grew up with white parents, and black, or other PoC nannies (Indian, Pakistani, etc, but mostly Haitian or Jamaican women).
They taught me stuff about their cultures from "back home."
I learned to love Soup Joumou, which...if I remember right was a celebratory meal for celebrating the freedom of Haiti from the French. They taught me slang (and some swears) they taught me a little about their religions (slightly off-brand Christianity, little bit of Haiti or Jamaican culture thrown in there).
My sister didn't really grow up "mexican" and has told me she considers herself "white" and doesn't want anyone to know her heritage. (the only reason I'm sharing this is because I'm 99% sure no one would be able to track her down and tell her I said anything, if you do happen to know her, please don't, we don't like each other already)
We did however grow up with Mexican and other cultures stuff all around us. An ivory Buddah passed down from family, a Sugar Skull gifted to my sister by her biological parents (she didn't like it though so it was set behind some stuff on a display shelf my parents had for all their nick-knacks....they were both journalists who traveled the world. My dad was at the Seoul Olympics way back when. I have a little button for it.) I think they held great respect for the people in the places they traveled. I hold no regrets about keeping some of their nick-knacks. But sometimes I worry about displaying them because I don't want someone to accuse me of trying to steal from another culture. For example, I was gifted a kimono in kindergarden for being friendly to the Japanese girl in class who spoke absolutely zero english. we would draw pictures and share them back and forth. her parents appreciated it and gave me a child sized kimono. I want to display it on my wall because its beautiful, but I don't want someone bitching that I'm not Asian.

I don't think I would ever call myself anything but "white with a little bit of Cherokee" (my biological grandmother was Cherokee). But I usually just say white. Even though I know if I wanted I'm closely related enough to the tribe my grandmother was in that I could try to 'join in.'
But...I don't really have a desire to. Ultimately they kicked my grandmother out because she birthed a blue eyed blonde haired baby. So... -shrugs-
I don't mind reading information about other cultures, and one day I hope that our cultures/races have blended together so much that we can all do what feels most comfortable for us, but I think IDENTIFYING as a different race than you are is...at the very least, weird, but it is also disrespectful a lot of the time.
Some people who do it do it because they 'fetishize' the idea and think that their life would be different or better. And I don't fault them for that. But, at its core isn't it just a more permanent version of "blackface" especially when they promote stereotypes about the race they claim to be?

Just some sleep deprived thoughts.
ty for your time