The Study of Racialism

The rule forbids a member from criticizing someone’s self-identity. You may, however, criticize someone for advocating a self-identity for others. For example, you may not say, “It is wicked of ABC to self-identify as XYZ and to claim that he does so to avoid being a self-hating sellout.” This would be criticizing ABC’s self choice. But you may say, “It is wicked of ABC to accuse anyone who does not make the same choice as he did, of being a self-hating sellout.” This would be criticizing ABC’s advocacy of a self-identity for others, not his self-choice.

Similarly, if someone makes a fraudlent claim in connection with having chosen a particular self-identity, the fraudulent claim is not immune from criticism merely because the identity is immune. For example, if someone says that Martians landed and told him to self-identify as Martian, the person's Martian self-identity cannot be criticised, but the claim about Martians landing can be challenged. If proven to be a lie, the claim can and should be exposed as a lie.

The more common occurrence in this site is someone claiming to self-identify as Black because it is the law of the land. The person's Black self-identity cannot be criticised. But in factual reality there is no such law, neither caselaw nor statute. And so, while the person's identity is immune to criticism, the fradulent claim of law can and should be exposed as a lie (or as ignorance, whichever is appropriate).

Moderators should note that, although this policy is symmetrical and even-handed in theory, it is more oppressive of Black members than of non-Black members in practice. This is because non-Blacks seldom accuse apostates of "racial treason" or invoke non-existent laws justify identity choice. But, for historical reasons, those phenomena (accusing apostates of selling out, and justifying identity by invoking non-existent laws) are common within the African-American community. [See Randall Kennedy's Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal (New York: Pantheon, 2008) for details.] Consequently, moderator attempts to apply this policy even-handedly may unintentionally yield biased results. This means that enforcing this rule is likely to draw complaints of bias. There is little you can do about it other than to be aware of the possibility.