These thoughts, written in the aftermath of a half-day conference on race-shifting (first part viewable here) and influenced by Kim TallBear’s critique of identity, have me going out on a limb, for reasons that are likely pretty obvious. But I will persevere with them, and ask that you read them through to the end before reacting to isolated parts of the argument. Thoughts welcome.
1. Gender transitioning and race-shifting are parallel processes insofar as they involve a move (shift or transition) from one pole of a dyad to another: either from male to female or vice versa, or, in the case of race shifting, from one racial category (e.g., white, black, Hispanic/Latinx, Indigenous, et al.) to another.
2. Gender transitioning and race-shifting concern identity, which in late capitalism has become both deeply personalized (“this is about who I am”) and deeply politicized (“I have the right to be myself” = “we have the right to be ourselves”). Talking about them, in North America today (and to varying degrees elsewhere), has for this reason become something of a minefield. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Since they are important issues for many people, we need to talk about them coherently.
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