(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Chicago police officer Mohammad Yusuf sued the city for the right to change his race on official forms after the department announced officers could freely adjust their legal genders to match their chosen identities.
Yusuf, 43, argued that he “currently identifies as Egyptian and African American,” but the department prohibited the change from “Caucasian,” according to the New York Post.
The officer argued that by forbidding the change he was being denied opportunities for professional advancement.
Yusuf alleged that officials within the department overlooked him as a candidate for promotion due to his current “Caucasian” designation. He claimed that a vast majority of the candidates hired for these positions went to minority applicants.
He also claimed that minority candidates usually benefited from CPD’s promotion system, even if they did not score well on promotional exams.
He claimed to have scored “in the first promotional tier” for the sergeant’s exam in 2019, but said he had been passed over for promotion several times since.
Yusuf started as a police officer with the CPD 20 years ago. The legal designations for race in 2004 included only “Caucasian,” “Black” and “Hispanic.”
Today, there are nine designations, including “Black or African American,” “Hispanic or Latino,” “White,” “American Indian or Alaska Native,” “Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander,” “Two or more races” and “I choose not to disclose.”
He chose “Caucasian,” and the department now bars any officers from changing their race due to a “blanket prohibition” against such alterations.
Yusuf claimed officials told him to produce a DNA test before being allowed to change his race. He complied, and produced the results of a “23 and Me” test. The department did not take this into account and said it was “not possible” to change his official record.
“The Racial Identity Policy Ban facially and intentionally discriminates against certain individuals based on personally identifiable characteristics like race,” the Yusuf alleged.
According to Yusuf’s lawsuit, the department’s position that “racial identity is immutable contradicts contemporary understandings of race as a fluid and complex social construct.”
