Use of the word transracial to describe this is new and has been criticized, because the word was historically used to describe a person raised by adoptive parents of a different ethnic or racial background, such as a Black child adopted and raised by a White couple.
Historically, the term transracial was used solely to describe parents who adopt a child of a different race.
[1][2][3] The use of the term to describe changing racial identity has been criticized by members of the transracial adoption community.
Kevin H. Vollmers, executive director of an adoption non-profit, said the term is being "appropriated and co-opted", and that this is a "slap in the face" to transracial adoptees.
The subject was also explored in Trans: Gender and Race in an Age of Unsettled Identities, a 2016 book by UCLA sociology professor Rogers Brubaker, who argues that the phenomenon, though offensive to many, is psychologically real to many people, and has many examples throughout history.