Graduate Compendium, MA Social Justice & Human Rights
In the original analysis below, I identify key areas of overlap between the experience of being mixed-race and being transgender, as described in the previous two essays.
As you’ve likely noticed from reading the previous two essays in this compendium, the experience of being mixed-race and the experience of being transgender overlap in several key ways:
A lack of space for their existence within a binary system.
For mixed-race individuals, this means belonging to neither “race” that makes up their heritage or having to “choose” with which they identify most strongly or present as in a given situation.
For transgender individuals, this means having no clear pathways for transition from one gender/sex category to another, or during transition being “between” categories depending on the situation.
For nonbinary individuals, this means quite literally having no box to check when it comes to a myriad of forms (legal space), having no restroom/locker-room in many establishments (physical space), and having no social space in a society that gender-segregates nearly every social interaction (cultural/conceptual space).
Conditional or inconsistent access to human rights.
For mixed-race individuals, this means having more or fewer rights depending on the social situation, how they choose to present themselves and their race, and how their racial identity is perceived.
For transgender/nonbinary individuals, this means having more or fewer rights depending on the social situation, as being known or suspected to be transgender or nonbinary can impact a person’s access to educational, economical, health, living/housing, and other opportunities.
The potential for a person’s identity or concept of the self to change over time.
A mixed-race person may change how they identify throughout their life or depending on the situation (code-switching). They may identify as mixed-race, or solely one race, or something else entirely as they come to grips with what their culture and heritage means to them, often having to unpack what they have been told their heritage means by others.
Many transgender people “know” that they are not their assigned gender at birth from a young age, while many others do not. Many other people may facilitate between transgender, nonbinary, genderqueer, gender nonconforming, or some other identity throughout their process of discovering their true self.
Both race and gender are social constructs that are not inherently tied to a person’s biology or physical form.
What constitutes a “race” has changed drastically over time and is different in different cultures and settings. Seeing as “race” has much to do with how a person is perceived by others, the same physical body can be perceived very differently depending on who perceives them and if they have decided to make any modifications to their body that may indicate or downplay a certain race.
A person’s gender need not be related to their physical body at all – a transgender man who was assigned female at birth knows he is a man, regardless of his chromosomes, his reproductive organs, his sexual characteristics, his appearance, or whether he makes any medical interventions.
Both race and gender are concepts that have been used to uphold and enforce unequitable systems in the US.
White supremacy and anti-blackness have been built into all US systems, policies, and institutions.
Male-supremacy and misogyny have been built into all US systems, policies, and institutions.