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Kamiko

Kamiko

17. Japan and US. She/her.

Identifying as your true self.

4 min readJul 31, 2022

(WARNING: POSSIBLY OFFENSIVE ARTICLE UPCOMING. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.)
Rachel Dolezal- A biological white woman who identifies as African American.
You’ll get mixed opinions when you bring up her name; either people who hate her for being what she considers her “true self”, or people who believe she is a hero because of what she had done to bring awareness to race problems.

Hi. I’m Kamiko and today I’m going to be writing about a topic that many may consider taboo.

We live in a day and age where you truly can identify as whatever you want. There are some people, who can typically go by “transtrenders” on popular platforms like TikTok, and that means that they are people who identify as transgender just for popularity, clout, and overall attention.
This type of action is actually very harmful to people who truly have gender dysphoria and don’t like the body they live in.

I firmly believe in, identify as what you feel happiest as.
If that means identifying as a pedophile, however, don’t do that! Get help.
Overall, just identify as something that makes you happy, that is legal, and something that doesn’t hurt others or yourself.

With this increase in identifying as what you feel naturally, there are more people identifying as different races without doing the proper research.
They choose to get dreadlocks, surgery to change your eye shape, continuous spray tans to color your skin, you name it..
This isn’t okay, and is commonly referred to as cultural appropriation.

Cultural appropriation is a term that describes someone, most commonly a white person, who prefers to dress up and make themselves look like a different race.

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This term is helpful when referring to those types of people.

But what about past lives?
Don’t get me wrong, if you want to be part of a certain race and not do the proper research to become acquainted with the types of struggles that those people go through, that’s not okay.
But if you truly feel it, and naturally look like it, have grown up that way, and really do feel a strong, almost spiritual pull to it, I don’t see the problem with it.

Let’s look at Eminem, the rapper.
He is a white male who has grown up living a life that your average white male doesn’t usually live. He has lived a “gangster” life, which is why his music appeals to that type of crowd. He is known as someone who can truly talk about that life and not appropriate that culture, since he has lived it.
I’m sure if you asked someone, they’d debunk what I’m saying, but if you do your research, you will say I’m not lying.
If you’ve lived it, you deserve to be able to sing about it, or even talk, look, or feel like it.
However, if you’ve lived a perfectly picket fence, million dollar life, and want to pretend that you’ve grown up in the streets of Compton, that’s not okay.
But if you were a white kid growing up in a neighborhood with shootouts and had to learn how to live through the projects, I’d say you deserve to let loose and honorably sustain that title.

But that’s just my opinion.

So, that brings me back to my initial point.. Rachel Dolezal.
She has been called a “hero of some sorts” by Rihanna, worked tirelessly for the NAACP, raised awareness, you name it.
It doesn’t make what she’s doing okay, especially since she grew up looking like she has zero African American ancestry in her DNA, but due to how much awareness she has raised for this culture, I don’t see a problem with her.
Maybe it’s not okay for her to tan, change her hair and name, etc..
But I don’t see the joy in cancelling her when all she’s doing is being true to her soul, and soul contract, and even helping out that culture and it’s numerous problems.

So, past lives. Maybe she was African American in her past life, may have some chromosomes that resonate with an African American person, and it may be carved into her soul for her to have those nesting instincts.
There’s nothing wrong with identifying as what you truly feel is your utmost self. There’s nothing wrong with being your true self.
It doesn’t mean be the whitest kid in the town getting dreadlocks, it just means respecting the culture, and if you already naturally look it, there’s no problem.

I see it as, if you have to get certain upgrades to look like the race you wanna identify as, you probably don’t have it in your DNA and should stop.
But if you already look it, have been brought up by the culture, and feel a strong pull to it, it’s probably a spiritual calling and you should stick to it if it truly makes you happy to identify as.
As long as you’re not hurting anyone, you’re fine. Be yourself, it’s okay.

*PSA: I know this will cause a bunch of uproar. My opinions are mine, and your opinions are yours. Threatening, and saying rude things, will not change anything. If you don’t like this, don’t read it and move on.*

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Kamiko
Kamiko

Written by Kamiko

17. Japan and US. She/her.