#alter race

[cptsdgenic]

Hot take:

headspaces, especially if you're a fully medicalized CDD system, don't really matter. it is a visual tool in your head. i dont think you need words for being another race or being intersex or whatever in your head. i think it doesnt actually affect you at all, & you can accept the fact that you are perisex/white/etc without making a million terms to obscurify that. Your perception of yourself in your head is not so important that you cannot acknowledge your privelege.

Let me clarify myself because writing posts & getting people to understand you is hard.

If you are medically plural with a CDD, your headspace isn't some magical thing that just Happens.

A headspace is a visualization tool used in therapy to help facilitate your communication & your recovery. This is why you hear people say they created their own headspace/ changed how they look in headspace/ chose how they look in headspace/ etc. Because at the end of the day, all it needs is you to be able to visualize it in your mind.

[l obviously cannot account for every single kind of plurality so I wan't to narrow my scope in this post, but essentially.]

How you look in headspace or what exomemories you have of being a minority that you are not does not matter. And it especially does not matter above you recognizing the priveleve you live IN REAL LIFE situations, or the people in those groups telling you to stop claiming to be a part of a group that you are not.

Things like race or intersexuality are not just identities you can claim for the funs of it.

Yes, both sex & race are social constructs, but if you think that means none of it is real & everything is playdough & your actions have no consequences, then you are sorely mistaken.

Nonwhite racial groups & intersex people exist as specified groups because of the bigotry we face. Because society made a system that fucks us over for how we are BODILY.

Race may have no scientific backing to exist, but it still is a thing that exists in our society & your actions do not exist in a vacuum. Sex may be more complex than people think, & the sex binary is not real, but your actions do not exist in a vacuum.

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I think this problem exists a lot in online communities of all types. People desprately want to find a way to ~identify~ out of acknowledgement of their own privelege, & want to feel ultra validated in their suffering in any way possible. And a lot of people wanna obscure their privelege while speaking over groups in a way that makes their opinions matter or just so they can continue on not caring about those groups.

I'm not targeting anyone specific, and I know this situation is more complex than not. But at the end for the day:

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How you appear in headspace affects nothing. No matter what your plurality is. You are not actually a part of that group, you still have privelege over them. And desperately scrambling to find ways to have that not matter anymore because you feel like you are entitled to something is fucked up. Take a step back and reflect uponst yourself.

In every day life, your ~alter race~ or ~headspace intersexuality~ does not affect you at all. Because it is how you visualize yourself in your head.

[parts-of-one]

We're white, but I (as an alter) internally appear dark skinned since I'm an introject of a black/brown character. I know many other systems have alters who internally appear as dark skinned for whatever reason, too.

Unfortunately, I've heard many white systems say that since they have such an alter, they're part of the black community. You need to understand that if you do/say that, you're racist, whether you like to hear it or not. You're invading black people's spaces and talking over them.

- 💜

[ichliebemeinkissen]

Only time "alter race" matters is if it's a genuine thing.

I've met blk systems who have incredibly racist yt alters who they treat as white & when that alter says slurs its regarded the same. That's a genuine reason to regard innerworld race.

You wanting to claim oppression points cuz ur white ass formed a "black alter" thats just a complete stereotype, is not.

[antimisinfo]

Alters can appear as a different skin colour to the body but they are not a different race.

" Alters may have a different perception of their appearance, for e.g., different hair or skin color, body shape " ((this is shortened down a little because theres a lot of other bullet points on the website))

" They may perceive themselves as having an age, gender, sexuality, appearance, source, or even species that may or may not match that of the system's actual body, and they may or may not be aware of these discrepancies. " ((I know this one doesn't mention skin colour exactly but you probably get the gist))

Despite being able to have a different skin colour to the body alters should not claim to be a different race, as race is not based purely on skin colour. Skin colour is a big part of it (and the most noticeable) but race is also based on cultural backgrounds and social factors

" Race divides human populations into groups often based on physical appearance, social factors and cultural backgrounds. "

Along with that claiming to be a race you are not apart of (e.g; a alter in a bodily Asian system claims to be black) can often lead to complicated scenarios where the alter in question tries to "act like their race" by using the n word, speaking over black voices and other things. ((All of which are obviously bad))

So TLDR : alters can appear as a different skin colour within headspace / in faceclaims but they cannot claim to be a different race.

((I fear I may have worded some of this wrong, so if I have please let me know.))

[honourablepresents]

I feel like people who claim that alter race isn't real are ignoring the truama that people can experience relating to their race.

I feel like It's almost completely white people that want to feel like a savior to poc and fight with other whie people, or poc people that heard the white person's message and thought it was a message that the white person had gotten from a poc.

We are leaving out a huge number of people, people of color that have been forced to assimilate into cultures that aren't their own.

I'm mixed. I'm Black, Asian, White. And I was practically raised as a white person.

I look at my group of friends, they're all white people save for one other mixed person. Hispanic and white, I believe. And one black girl who really is just a little more than an acquaintance to me. Who I'm really only friends with on the foundations of not being white.

The only time I'm ever really not being white is when I'm with my dad's side if the family- in which I feel pressured to prove myself to be black enough. And my Asian? My mom's dad isn't even in our life. I don't know them.

All my life I have been assimilating in with people. That does a lot to someone. The majority of us identify as white despite bodily being majority black. The host is the only one who identifies with all of our races and that's because it feels like it has to.

When a mix race person splits a black identifying alter to help preserve that black side of themself, that is alter race. Alter race is valid.

When a mix race person splits a problematic factive that HURT the black community and doesn't want to disrespect it more by calling himself black, that is alter race. Alter race is valid.

When a poc person who has been raised as white their entire life has alters form that don't feel poc- that dont know how to or CANT? That's alter race. Alter race is valid.

Alter race is not just about appearing a different color in headspace, it's about who you are and what your experiences are. It's not about white people splitting anime characters and disregard asian culture or splitting black alters and trying to say the n word.

Sometimes race can be a traumatic thing. To tell me that I can't split an alter of something that has been a constant, recognizable truama in my life since I was 5 years old kind of goes to show that you think systemhood is about introjecting fun fictives and nor about living with the truama you endure day to day.

[thehellsaint]

being an ethnicity is more than looking like that ethnicity, it's about the culture and history and bigotry faced by being that ethnicity.

this is why (white) people saying an alter in their system is Chinese or Japanese will always be racist and demeaning to POC

[multiplicity-positivity]

I'm a Japanese headmate in a body that isn't Japanese, but is still a poc. I've seen posts about poc headmates having to change their names because it is a form of cultural appropriation as headmates are "pretending" to be of a culture or a system is racist in allowing their headmates to interact with their own culture.

I personally believe I have the right to indulge in my identity as best as I can in another world and body.

What are your thoughts on this. I simply wish to ensure there is concepts I am not missing. -🕯️💣

We are white so we are unequipped to answer this question whatsoever. Our own introjects with POC sources have changed their names and have source separated as a means of respect to people who belong to those cultures, but we are not imposing our own system’s beliefs onto others. As a POC you are already more equipped than we are to answer these questions.

If any POC systems would like to share their thoughts on this, they are more than welcome to. From what we’ve seen and heard, if the culture is not closed, then using names and engaging with the culture is fair game. But if the culture is closed to outsiders, and/or if the name in particular has cultural significance, it’s best to try and create some distance.

Personally, in our system, we believe all of our alters are share a race with the body. Even our introjects. But we know that for other systems it doesn’t work this way. So we really don’t know what to tell you here that is both understanding of headmates, and respectful to people from different cultures. Our apologies.

[candyland-toybox]

me: exist

my brain: here have kaeya in your system

me again: ok cool but i gotta tell him to acknowledge that the body is white and he cannot be held to the same standard as poc people. he might be a black presenting alter but he is not actually poc because the body isn’t.

me internally: oh shit i feel im boutta fuck shit up real hard-