Rethinking Rachel Doležal and Transracial Theory

Taking a deeply informed stance on the possibilities that arise when taking seriously the fissures in race and racial identity, McKibbin does not mince words when it comes to advocating for a more complex assessment of race. This book is indispensable for the contemporary moment.
- Marquis Bey, Assistant Professor of African American Studies and English, Northwestern University

McKibbin is a courageous thinker. She takes on a fraught topic about which advocates and opponents are screaming past each other, and deals with it carefully, calmly, methodically.
- Paul Spickard, Distinguished Professor of History, Black Studies, and Asian American Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Stimulating and provocative. This is an important work that deserves attention.
- Joseph L. Graves Jr, author of The Emperor’s New Clothes (2001); The Race Myth (2005); Racism, Not Race (2021, co-author)

Race remains a site for struggle and liberation as this book so clearly demonstrates.
- Rinaldo Walcott, author of The Long Emancipation: Moving toward Black Freedom


Using real-life examples, this book asks readers to reflect on how we—as an academic community—think and talk about race and racial identity in twenty-first-century America. One of these examples, Rachel Doležal, provides a springboard for an examination of the state of our discourse around changeable racial identity and the potential for “transracialism”. An analysis of how we are theorizing transracial identity (as opposed to an argument for/against it), this study detects some omissions and problems that are becoming evident as we establish transracial theory and suggests ways to further develop our thinking and avoid missteps. Intended for academics and thinkers familiar with conversations about identity and/or race, Rethinking Rachel Doležal and Transracial Theory helps shape the theorization of “transracialism” in its formative stages.

Molly Littlewood McKibbin, PhD, specializes in Black Literatures and Critical Race Theory. She is the author of Shades of Gray: Writing the New American Multiracialism and work published in African American Review, Callaloo, the Journal of Black Studies, and the Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies.