Race Role

Race roles in society means how we’re expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned race. For example, an educated black person who dresses in a blue collar outfit, listens to country, prioritizes their career is often considered "Acting white", outside the racial role they are supposed to play.

A person's expression of their racial role can be more important to sustaining their identity if they are of an ambiguous ethnicity. For example, President Barack-Obama, being born to both white and African parents, was often the target of 'acting white' before his presidential race.

J-Cole, having a similar proportion of ancestry to Obama, is nevertheless unquestioned in his expression as a black individual through his musical, hair and dress style.

In other words - for racially ambiguous people - they cement their identity by acting as the stereotypes that people come to expect from a particular race.

"The race roles people play in society are destructive to the core principle of treating people as individual people."