#Transracial: Cognitive Dissonance in the Cultural Narrative

So Shaun King has been trending on twitter as the next public "Transracial" person after Rachel Dolezal. There have been articles attacking pointing out that he is white from the conservative side, and articles from the left saying rebutting that. At this point, I haven't seen any rebuttal about his father being white, only a rebuttal of the police reports and other secondary claims (car accidents and number of children). With Rachel Dolezal, there wasn't much room for refutation, since her biological parents came forward and said that she was white. The birth certificate on the Breitbart article is credible, then there is no other point that needs to be made about this case.

But there is something about the claim of transracialism that seems to have liberals in a bind. In my cultural anthropology course in college (or university if you are outside the US), we were told that race is a social construct, not a biological fact. But then there is a question of who gets to choose what race we are? Lets claim that society, in the aggregate, chooses for us. How does that change an individual's ancestry? It doesn't, and it can't. If we take race as purely a social construct, then transracialism is just someone adopting the social identity of another race. No big deal. Except that isn't what happens. The people who claim to be another race are somehow lying. They can't be transracial because they aren't 'actually' black/asian/whatever, because their parents weren't. 

There is some truth to the claim that race is a social construct, but it is clearly not purely a social construct. There has to be some basis for it. Bill Clinton and George Bush will not be considered African American. We can correct people who get our race wrong, and we back it up with the biological evidence: "My parents are from xyz, not uvw." If race is a social construct, the transracialism is not a big deal. But identity politics is so obsessed with race and gender that being transracial changes your status, and the fight becomes whether you are allowed to assume the label of an 'oppressed' group, or if you are more oppressed  for not being taken seriously about it. 

I personally think that we would be better off leaving the identity politics behind, and strive to treat everyone with respect. If race is a social construct, won't it go away if we start ignoring it? Then transracial will have no meaning.