{"id":8345,"date":"2015-04-16T05:52:28","date_gmt":"2015-04-16T12:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=8345"},"modified":"2015-04-16T05:52:28","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T12:52:28","slug":"is-race-following-gender-in-becoming-a-fluid-identity-construct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/is-race-following-gender-in-becoming-a-fluid-identity-construct\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Race Following Gender in Becoming a \u2018Fluid\u2019 Identity Construct?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among many careerists and politicians, tweaking one\u2019s ethnic identity is becoming increasingly widespread.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n
by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

\"imagesN<\/span>ot long ago, the New York Times<\/em> uncovered<\/a> the artifact that Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush had once listed himself as \u201cHispanic\u201d on a Florida voter-registration form.<\/p>\n

Bush is married to a Mexican American. He lived for a number of years in South America and speaks Spanish fluently.<\/p>\n

Maybe he has consciously assumed a Hispanic identity. Or perhaps he did not think there was much of a difference between \u201cwhite\u201d and \u201cHispanic.\u201d Or, as he said, he simply checked the wrong box by accident.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Vijay Chokal-Ingam, whose family immigrated from India, and who is the brother of sitcom-actress Mindy Kaling, recently confessed that he, too, once changed his ethnic identity in frustration over not being admitted to medical school. The dark-skinned Chokal-Ingam shaved his head, used his middle name Jojo, and was admitted to Saint Louis Medical School as a minority African American. Was he or was he not \u201cblack\u201d?<\/p>\n

Bush and Chokal-Ingam are not the only ones who may be confused about ethnic identity or may believe such identity can be assumed or alleged instead of being innate.<\/p>\n

Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren for much of her career advantageously checked off \u201cNative American\u201d when under consideration for law professorships. Although there was no concrete evidence of any such ethnic pedigree, Warren simply cited her grandparents\u2019 family stories about their heritage as if they were proof enough to claim official and expedient Native American minority status.<\/p>\n

Former University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill for decades masqueraded as a Native American activist. Apparently he either wished to be a Native American,<\/strong> or saw careerist advantages in feigning such a minority pedigree \u2014 or both.<\/p>\n

Churchill\u2019s ethnic get-up and long-successful ruse suggest that society does not quite know who is and who is not Native American \u2014 or even which criteria we should use to audit such claims.<\/p>\n

During the Trayvon Martin shooting case, the New York Times<\/em> apparently wished to diminish defendant George Zimmerman\u2019s claim of minority status (he is half-Peruvian), so it coined the term \u201cwhite Hispanic\u201d for him.<\/p>\n

Barack Obama, whose mother was a white American and whose father was a black Kenyan, used to go by the name Barry Soetoro (the last name of his Indonesian stepfather). Since college he has preferred his birth name, Barack Hussein Obama. Apparently at different times, a young Obama felt more comfortable with different ethnic nomenclatures \u2014 and what they conveyed to others.<\/p>\n

In all these cases, ethnic identity apparently could be reinvented, or at least tweaked.<\/p>\n

People can change their gender if they so choose or present themselves as either sex regardless of traditional definitions. Is race likewise becoming a shifting construct, often predicated on changing nomenclature, accent, dress, and superficial appearance?<\/p>\n

Will \u201ctrans-racialists\u201d assume another race in the manner that the transgendered now cross sexual lines?<\/p>\n

Does the fact that many careerists and politicians can so easily get away with massaging their ethnic identities reflect the fact that race itself has become a meaningless construct? What is the greater fraud \u2014 creating or policing ethnic identities?<\/p>\n

We are more likely to identify Senator Ted Cruz as a Latino than former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. That\u2019s not because of appearance, but rather only because Cruz\u2019s father was Cuban and he has a Latino surname, while Richardson\u2019s mother was Mexican and he doesn\u2019t have a Latino surname.<\/p>\n

Had George Zimmerman just Latinized his first name and gone by his mother\u2019s maiden name, becoming Jorge Mesa, would the New York Times<\/em> have been so quick to render him a white Hispanic? Zimmerman, the person, remained the same. But were our views of him supposed to be conditioned by his particular ethnic construct?<\/p>\n

When local newscasters trill their R\u2019s, and hyphenate or add accents to their last names, are they afraid that otherwise their language, appearance, or lifestyle might not so easily showcase their minority status, which is a plus in the media?<\/p>\n

Perhaps Jeb Bush could be called transracial. By virtue of his marriage, his Spanish fluency and his years of residence in Spanish-speaking countries, is he more Latino than are third-generation Americans with names like Nicole Lopez or Juanita Brown who speak no Spanish and have never visited Latin America?<\/p>\n

America is a multiracial society due to immigration, intermarriage, and assimilation. Perhaps it is time to cut out the bumper sticker self-labeling and instead accept that in our ethnically mixed-up nation, race has become an incidental construct rather than essential to our careers and personas.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, do we want to return to the one-drop rule of the Old Confederacy, or the ethnic spoils system of 19th-century Austria-Hungary?<\/p>\n

Should we wear bright government DNA badges of various colors to authenticate our racial pedigree and to prevent the current epidemic of ethnic identity fraud?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/span>\u00a0\u00a9 2015 Tribune Media Services, Inc.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among many careerists and politicians, tweaking one\u2019s ethnic identity is becoming increasingly widespread. by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online Not long ago, the New York Times uncovered the artifact that Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush had once listed himself as \u201cHispanic\u201d on a Florida voter-registration form. Bush is married to a Mexican American. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[120,11,86,383,216],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2aB","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":763,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/americas-problem-of-assimilation\/","url_meta":{"origin":8345,"position":0},"title":"America’s Problem of Assimilation","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Defining Ideas The current Supreme Court term has been dominated by the Constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare legislation better known as Obamacare. But the Court has recently heard another case, this one concerning the controversial Arizona immigration law passed in 2010. Though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Immigration"","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8625,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-does-the-modern-malleability-of-gender-and-race-mean-for-the-future-of-affirmative-action\/","url_meta":{"origin":8345,"position":1},"title":"What Does the Modern Malleability of Gender and Race Mean for the Future of Affirmative Action?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online In the present postmodern world, we are told that there is no such thing as a biologically distinct gender. Instead, gender is now socially constructed. It can be defined by the individual in almost any way he or she sees fit. In the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Identity Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Identity Politics","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/identity-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Caitlyn Jenner at the Espy Awards, July 15, 2015. (Kevin Winter\/Getty)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/download-31.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3300,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-race-card\/","url_meta":{"origin":8345,"position":2},"title":"Obama’s Race Card","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The liberal media are in full Captain Renault mode, \u201cshocked, shocked\u201d to find race injected into the presidential campaign by a \u201cSwift-boating\u201d John McCain. How shameless can you get? The Obama campaign\u2013\u2013indeed, the whole of Obama\u2019s public existence\u2013\u2013is about nothing other than his perceived\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7166,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-race-hacks-defend-their-industry\/","url_meta":{"origin":8345,"position":3},"title":"The Race-Hacks Defend Their Industry","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 The race-hack usual subjects recently attacked Congressman Paul Ryan for stating that the problems plaguing the poor\u2013\u2013incarceration, fatherless children, drug abuse, rampant violence, and welfare-dependence\u2013\u2013 are a consequence of a dysfunctional culture that scorns marriage, parenthood, education, work, and virtues like self-control. Given that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10438,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-problem-of-competitive-victimhood\/","url_meta":{"origin":8345,"position":4},"title":"The Problem of Competitive Victimhood","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Divisive identity politics are fading in favor of a shared American identity. The startling 2016 presidential election weakened the notion of tribal identity rather than a shared American identity. And it may have begun a return to the old idea of unhyphenated Americans. Many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Republicans"","block_context":{"text":"Republicans","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/republicans\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5199,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/multiculturalism-and-its-discontents\/","url_meta":{"origin":8345,"position":5},"title":"Multiculturalism and Its Discontents","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 10, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton The New Individualist This copyrighted article first appeared in the July 2005 issue of\u00a0The New Individualist\u00a0[http:\/\/www.objectivistcenter.org\/navigator\/index.asp], and is reprinted by permission. England's multicultural delusions were literally exploded this past summer when British citizens, children of Islamic immigrants, turned out to be the murderers whose bombs killed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. 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