Ja Du

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About

Ja Du is the name of a white transgender woman who claims to identify as a "transracial" Filipino person, similar to Rachel Dolezal.

Online History

On December 29th, 2015, Ja Du launched the Trans racialism support group on Facebook.^[2] Within two years, it has garnered more than 160 likes and 190 follows.

On November 13th, 2017, WTSP-TV in Tampa Bay, Florida aired a report on Ja Du, a white-born male named Adam, who now identifies as a transgender Filipino woman.^[1] In the report (shown below), Ja Du says, "Whenever I'm around the music, I'm around the food, I feel like I'm in my own skin. I’d watch the history channel sometimes for hours you know whenever it came to that and you know nothing else intrigued me more but things about Filipino culture."

Media Coverage

Several news outlets covered the story from the WTSP, including USA Today,^[3] The New York Post,^[4] the NY Daily News,^[4] The Independent^[5] and more.

Criticism

On November 13th, the website The Root published an article entitled "Today in White Nonsense: Woman Claims She’s ‘Transracial,’ Identifies as Filipino." The article negatively criticizes Ja Du and the idea of "transracial identitiy." They write:

"Why are we treating religion, race and gender as though they operate in the same ways? How does a licensed professional even fix her mouth to say something like that?

The differences between transgender and transracial have been unpacked numerous times, most recently when Rachel Dolezal compared herself to Caitlyn Jenner. As Salon noted in a 2015 article, there is a growing body of evidence that trans identity is rooted in biological differences. Recent research has shown that the brains of trans people While people have choices in how they express their gender identity, what their gender identity is is involuntary.

Meanwhile, Ja Du wants to be Filipina because she fucks with the music and the adobo."

The following day, the late nite talkshow Desus & Mero ^[8] aired a segment on Ja Du, mocking the idea of being transracial. The video (shown below) received more than 20,000 views when shared to YouTube.

Online Reaction

On November 13th, Twitter^[10] published a Moments page regards the reaction to Ja Du. Many of the reactions to Ja Du were negative (examples below), referring to "transracial" identities as racist.

"Whenever I'm around the music, around the food, l feel like l'm in my own skin." No, dude. No. That's not how this s--- works. ADYS White guy says he feels Filipino, insists he is "transracial" But that's not how this s--- works. blog.angryasianman.com

this is low key racist, because you think that being another race feels different, 'oh i feel like a filipino', in actual reality we are al humans and we are all the same, race isn't anything but a colour, CULTURE IS DIFFERNT TO RACE, if you are fond of their culture their is USA TODAY Video @usatodayvideo Meet Ja Du. He's a 'transracial' man who was born white but identifies as Filipino. usat.ly/2jmR3nW

I honestly think stories like these (l.e. Rachel Dolezal) are disseminated to spit on the face of the LGBTQ community. I mean let's be real, this dude just wants an excuse to culture appropriate. 10News WTSP @10NewsWTSP Transracial' man born white feels like he is Filipino. on.wtsp.com/2zTchAQ

On November 14th, Redditor ^[9] ttam23 posted a screenshot from the inital report in the /r/dankmemes subreddit. The post received more than 700 points (94% upvoted) and 50 comments.