Racial ascription can override a person’s own refusal of that identity

Evidence

It behooves us to remember that Homer Plessy was not visibly Black but chosen specifically because he could pass for white. In order to violate the Jim Crow laws segregating train cars, he had to reveal himself to the train conductor as a Black man, thereby triggering his arrest. White segregationists could not always tell a Black person by looking at them, and Plessy might have just passed into Whiteness sitting in the whitesonly car but for the self-revelation of his Black racial identity. Similarly, Muslims cannot always be seen. Conversely, someone who is seen as Muslim may not be Muslim. A person can be ascribed as Muslim and Islamicized even while vociferously refusing that identification as did Barack Obama who considered being called a Muslim a slur. Others become Islamicized when they “come out.” — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 526

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Racial ascription can override visual passing and self-identification alike — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 526; Racial self-identification can conflict with claiming discrimination status — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian…, 105; Racial identification is reified even when one denies it — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 32 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Racial self-identification can conflict with claiming discrimination status #expands (0.95) — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness, 105
• Black racial identity is externally imposed before it is self-chosen #corroborates (0.95) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 340
• Black American identity fuses external ascription with self-identification #expands (0.92) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 341
• Racial identification is reified even when one denies it #corroborates (0.90) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 32
• Racial discrimination can precede and constitute a group’s own racialized self-understanding #corroborates (0.90) — Mareike Riedel, Islamophobia, Racial Discrimination…, 66
• Racism locates identity beyond will so conversion yields loss not change #expands (0.88) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 179
• A light-skinned person’s racial identity can be chosen and changed by naming #complicates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2497
• Ascriptive identity, not theological criteria, determines who gets targeted by anti-Muslim discrimination. #exemplifies (0.85) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 123