J. Pharoah Doss: I’m not a White man but my employer is forcing me to be one

& Mostafa Hefny, an Egyptian-born man who identified as Nubian, sued the United States government in 1997 to change his racial classification from White to Black. Since the 1940s, people of North African and Middle Eastern heritage have been legally classified as White on the US census. During the turbulent and highly prejudiced decades that followed, it was to their social and economic benefit to identify as White rather than ethnic minorities. By the 1990s, America had transformed, and being a minority had numerous benefits. Hefny’s lawsuit claimed that his White status excluded him from receiving certain minority scholarships, grants, and loans. Hefny’s case was dismissed without prejudice. In 2019, Hefny published the book I Am Not a White Man, but the US Government Forces Me to Be One. (The book also could have been titled When Being Classified as White No Longer Benefits Me.) Recently, the Chicago Police Department changed an officer’s gender identity to match the officer’s real-life experience. Mohammad Yusuf, a Chicago police officer for the past two decades, figured the CPD would allow him to change his racial/ethnic classification from his original filing. Yusuf identifies as both Egyptian and African American. However, Yusuf claims that the...