can you really just be any color you want

I'm blue (daba dee daba diiii)


No, though. The answer is no. Race is not a choice. It's also a lot more than just skin colour. There are people almost as pale as me who the world still identifies as black. It's common to use fake tan here in the UK, and in many parts of Asia people use chemicals to lighten their skin. These people do not change racial identities by doing these things.

 

How old is your brother? :lol:

But seriously though, no.

 

Well, even if you alter your skin colour, there are a lot of other physical features at play when it comes to people identifying race. Some people can "pass", though. A lot of light-skinned black people in America with light skin used to "pass" as white in years past. Maybe some still do. But when we read about it, we still understand those people to be "black", the implication being that they never internalised another racial identity and went through public life in disguise. Race has to do with ethnic background as well as physical characteristics, which is not something you can change by choice. Your background is your background, and you're kinda stuck with it.

So, in short, I guess you could alter your physical characteristics and lie about your family background to a point where people would think you're of a different race, but you'd be lying. Just like a gay person can live his/her life in a heterosexual marriage and always identify that way when asked, but is still gay.

 

Michael Jackson did it.

 

I can't believe it's already been 6 years since he died!

 

Whaaaaat!? Good lord, I'm old.

 

Im color #008282.

No but that is weird. There are people who identify as transethnic, which is like transgender but with race.

 

*cough cough* RACHEL DOLEZAL *COUGH COUGH*

My question is: how the hell did people actually believe she was black? She just looked orangey-tan to me, quite honestly.

 

If we could be any color we wanted. I'd be violet; similar to the mixture of colors in both sentences of my signature.

Or be blue; like Lapis Lazuli from Stevens Universe. ;P

 

Um, no?! In high school I wanted to be blue... it still hasn't happened. (And boy am I glad it didn't!!)

 

It was, indeed, a skin disease he had, but might also have used skin bleaching (it hasn't been verified). His skin changed color with his disease which made it impossible for his cells to produce melanin (and possibly bleaching).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson's_health_and_appearance#Skin_color

 

I obviously don't know the guy, but I get the feeling that dinosaur comment was meant to be a dig. Like, "lol you're trans? then i'm a triceratops." Might just be his humor but that's typically the kinda thing you get from transphobes.

And no, you can't change your race. You can tan, you can bleach, you can pretend to be another race (although it's impossible to do this respectfully), but you can't become another race. Transracials DO exist, but this is a term to only be used by someone of one race who has been adopted into a family that is of another race & as a result has no connection with the culture of their race. Someone who claims to be transracial because they believe they have a Korean soul when they're white as flour is a racist, plain & simple.