Jenner Racial Identity

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In our culture today, it is problematic to gaze at an individual and recognize exactly how that person self-identifies. Self-identification is becoming more ambiguous and self-determined. In recent years, our culture is making strides in becoming more accepting of this revolution of identification. Caitlyn Jenner and her gender transformation was a catalyst for the movement. During the 2015 ESPY Awards, Jenner received the Courage Award honoring her bravery in her transformation. However, Rachel Dolezal identifies herself as being black. In an essence the American society is denying one’s personal identity. The question that lies before us is, why is the American society in an uproar when Dolezal identifies herself as black, but Jenner is rewarded when she identifies herself as white? Self-identification should not be limited to just gender or sexuality but should also include race and ethnicity. According to New Oxford American Dictionary, the definition of the prefix trans is, “referring or relating to people whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond …show more content…

Race and ethnicity alone is becoming more complex and fluid. There has been an increase in racial categories making it more complicated to limit oneself in a singular racial category. America is considered the land of immigrants. This implies America is an inter-racial nation. Many people are naïve of the nation’s heterogeneity it possesses. If society today still applies the one drop rule that was used in our nation’s history, a person with any percentage of African American decent would be considered an African American even if the individual’s outwardly appearance appears to be Caucasian. It could be possible a Caucasian today could have African American or Native American

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