Identifying as transracial is a form of cultural appropriation

The argument

Proponents of this position argue that when white people come out as transracial and wish to be identified as a minority race, they are using a form of cultural appropriation. It is extremely easy for white people to appear to have darker skin with the use of makeup, tanning products, and photoshop to seem like another race. Yet, people of color are not able to identify as a transracial white person. This asymmetry is the core of the case: an identity that can be adopted in one direction and not the other is held to track social position rather than any internal sense of self. This proves that being transracial is not a real identity because not everyone is able to identify and transition to the race they wish. The second strand of the argument concerns what is actually being claimed when a racial identity is adopted. Many minority groups have gone through extensive suffering throughout history due to European and American colonialism. On this view a racial identity is not simply an appearance but an inherited position within that history — a set of experiences, disadvantages and consequences that a person does not choose and cannot opt into. It is inappropriate to identify with a race when that person has not suffered any hardships, because what is taken up is the identity without the conditions that gave it meaning for the people who hold it. People who identify as transracial are only concerned about how they appear to others, not the background and history of the race they are transitioning to. That, on this argument, is what makes the practice appropriation rather than identification. What is adopted is the visible and aesthetic part of a group's identity, separated from the history that produced it, and the person adopting it retains the ability to set it aside again in a way that members of the group themselves have never had.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Transracial individuals are able to learn and care for the culture and history of the race they transition to. In the United States, a man who was born white now identifies as Filipino. He has grown up knowing Filippino culture and continues to submerge himself in the culture as much as possible. People come out as transracial because they feel most comfortable with that race and culture, not because they wish to change their physical appearance.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P3] Transracial people have the capability of learning about the race they transitioned to.