NBC mocked for saying it's 'impossible to change your race’: ‘Same people say gender is a social construct’
'This is what happens when we let lunatics run the asylum,' one critic tweeted
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An NBC News report was called out by conservatives as hypocritical for promoting the notion it was "impossible" to change one's race, while denying this argument could also apply to gender.
The report spoke to several professors and activists who knocked the "transracial" trend gaining steam from youth on TikTok. The "race change to another," or "RCTA" movement, believes one can manifest a change in appearance and even genetics to appear another race.
"[E]xperts underscore that it is simply impossible to change your race," NBC emphasized before quoting assistant professor Jamie Cohen at CUNY Queens College, who described transracialism as a social contagion.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It’s just belief. It doesn’t ever really work, because it’s not doing anything, but they have convinced themselves that it works because there’s other people who have convinced themselves, as well," Cohen said.
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A TikTok logo is displayed on a smartphone in this illustration taken on Jan. 6, 2020. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)
Experts told the outlet that it was impossible to change one's race, not because of biology but because of racism embedded into society.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Experts agree race is not genetic. But they contend that even though race is a cultural construct, it is impossible to change your race because of the systemic inequalities inherent to being born into a certain race," the article read.
NBC quoted several professors who denied race was rooted in biology and argued it couldn't be separated from the social construct which put some races above others. The news outlet also shot down comparisons to the transgender movement.
"RCTA and transracialism — which came to the forefront because of controversial figures like Rachel Dolezal — have been compared to being transgender. However, psychologists and activists push back against comparisons," NBC said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FROM TRANSGENDERED TO ‘TRANSABLED’: NOW PEOPLE ARE ‘CHOOSING’ TO IDENTIFY AS HANDICAPPED
Social media influencer and detransitioner Oli London said he was influenced by TikTok to change his looks to appear more like a Korean woman. (Courtesy of Oli London)
Conservatives on Twitter ripped the opinions in the report disavowing comparisons to the transgender movement.
"Sex and race are both are biological physical traits of an organism rooted in unique and immutable DNA, why is it celebrated to change one and ridiculous to change the other?" a libertarian account asked.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Activist Billboard Chris, who protests sex-change therapies and surgeries on minors, tweeted, "Imagine thinking you could change some innate characteristic about yourself."
Attorney Jenin Younes blasted the media outlet as "desperate" for trying to distinguish the two social movements from each other.
"‘Experts’ and media outlets like NBC are now desperately trying to distinguish identifying as another race from identifying as another gender. You can’t identify as another race, they say, because race is only a social construct (this is ridiculous)," she tweeted.
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"Also, don’t the same people say gender is just a social construct? But you CAN change gender, according to them (not me). This is what happens when we let the lunatics run the asylum. God help us all," she added.
An NBC News report was called out by conservatives as hypocritical for promoting the notion it was "impossible" to change one's race, while denying this argument could also apply to gender. (Mid-Michigan Now)
Others gave their theories on why the left would push back on comparisons to the transgender movement.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Radio host Buck Sexton argued the left couldn't accept the transracial trend because it would upset their worldview on race.
‘A ’transracial' movement is something the Left is ideologically unprepared for, but will fight ferociously against, to protect racial entitlements that currently exist," he tweeted.
Satire site The Babylon Bee mocked the NBC report with an image of Robert Downey Jr. from the 2008 comedy "Tropic Thunder" in Blackface.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon joked, "I'm not miseducated enough to understand this article."
"The logical contortionism needed to write this article caused an interdimensional rift to appear in my head," another user knocked.
NBC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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