I'm not GC myself but I am transgender so I suppose I could shed some light on this distinction between being transgender and being transracial. I know this is a space for GC views and people so if I'm overstepping, please remove my post, I don't mean to invade this safe space.

So I think where GC and QT agree is that there is a distinction between the concepts of sex and gender, where sex represents the biological distinction between those who are male and those who are female, and gender is a culturally and societally influenced concept of expectations, roles, and expressions that are arbitrarily forced upon the 2 sexes through socialization and other environmental factors.

I think the same thing applies to skin color vs race. Skin color is a biological reality, and race is a concept that's culturally and societally influenced and is forced upon people usually based on an arbitrary distinction of a person's skin color and other environmental factors.

That being said, I'm not really aware of the surgical or medical processes by which someone can change their skin color, my mind goes to melanin levels but I have no clue if melatonin levels can be influenced forcibly like that. But assuming that it's possible for someone to change their natural skin color, I don't really see an issue with it. It would be like if someone dyed their hair from naturally brunette to blond. Socially speaking, that person might be regarded as white or black or whatever artificial category created around by the concept of race, and I don't particularly see a problem with this either, as race is ambiguous to begin with anyway.

I think the truth is that we are more hesitant to accept the idea of transracial people due to the massive amount of historical oppression that have been placed on people of color for centuries through imperialism, slavery, segregation, and overall, systemtic racism. But in reality, presuming there are ways to change your skin color through some kind of medical process, I don't necessarily see an issue, since skin color should be an inconsequential part of a person; it's just like someone's hair or eye color. It's a part of that person, and in our racist society it may have shaped how they grew up and lived, but ultimately it's something that in an ideal world shouldn't be something used to oppress people.

I don't know, what are everyone else's thoughts? Sorry this is kinda long 😬