Race proxies like phenotype can be out-performed with enough practiced identification

Evidence

Even if we often use proxies for race such as phenotype, color, class, or cultural markers, these can be deceptive. Rachel Dolezal, after all, was able to pass for Black with surprising ease even though she was once a white child. Her performance of race and inhabitance of Blackness was so convincing that she was appointed the director of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, only stepping down when her “real” identity was revealed. Her identification with African Americans was strong enough to invest significant energy in becoming Black, working for Black civil rights, and teaching in the Africana Studies department of Eastern Washington University. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 89

Categorization

• XREF: Dolezal shows race as achieved sociopolitical practice rather than fixed identity — parallels how targeted practice rather than origin produces Muslim racial identity. — connects to: If race is social, race is an amalgam of practices, not proxies like phenotype — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 89; Visible phenotype is not required for a group to become racialized — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 526; Racial ascription can override visual passing and self-identification alike — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 526 (+2 more)
• SEED: A contrast of Dolezal’s ‘chosen Blackness’ with American immigrants’ ‘assigned Muslimness’ could frame why self-selected identification persists among Blacks but resists inversion among Muslims.

Broader Connections

• Racial ascription can override visual passing and self-identification alike #corroborates (0.85) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 526
• Visible phenotype is not required for a group to become racialized #complicates (0.75) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 526
• Identification with even meaningless categories can drive discrimination #corroborates (0.72)
• White-partnered multiracials identify with their minority parent unless phenotype mismatches #qualifies (0.72) — Tatiana I. Zamora and Amado M. Padilla, Making sense of conflicting messages of…, 120