White civil rights leader has pretended to be black for years

[Treacle Toes]

it must take an enormous amount of front to carry on such a sham, even so far as to be head of the NAACP.

Reminds me of that conman they made a film out of, the one who posed as airline pilot and all sorts.

She was not the head of the NAACP..she was more like a regional spokesperson.
Also, it's not unusual for people to tell even bigger lies to cover the ones they told before and go to silly lengths to cover up all of the lies they are telling. Some people get in over their heads and don't cut their losses by fessing up or stopping. They take it further...

She still could have become a professor in AA studies and been honest about her ethnicity.

 

[butchersapron]

The dreaded carrot people.

 

[Citizen66]

She certainly stole the show the very week a campaign is launched to highlight black women victims of police violence in the US (we do hear about the men and the boys but not the women or the girls).

I doubt she intended to get caught though.

 

[MochaSoul]

The dreaded carrot people.

I hope you're not calling me ginger.

 

[butchersapron]

I doubt she intended to get caught though.

Here's a real effect though.

 

[butchersapron]

I hope you're not calling me ginger.

The last prejudice.

 

[8ball]

... it's not unusual for people to tell even bigger lies to cover the ones they told before and go to silly lengths to cover up all of the lies they are telling. Some people get in over their heads and don't cut their losses by fessing up or stopping. They take it further...

I always wonder in these cases whether people decide one day that they are going to start lying about things, or whether it begins with just not correcting minor misunderstandings, allowing people to believe misapprehensions, and then just snowballs.

 

[winifred]

A woman who dyes her hair blonde is experimenting with aesthetics. if she adopts the look is because she likes the effect. No she is not a fraud because aesthetic sense can be and is adopted as "part of" one's identity.

Much in the same way that a person who identifies so much with another culture or persona, might then internalise and adopt the same lifestyle for themselves so that it forms a new identity for them.

Pretending to be black for this sort of reason is unlikely but it has to be admitted that it is possible. But that reasoning detracts from the higher claims to fraud upon what this woman has done. She knows how difficult it is for a woman to get a podium and talk about her experiences in wider society and she knows (and even lectures about it) how much more difficult still that is for black women... and then, armed with all of this info she pursues a career in the very podium that should be occupied by a black woman not by her powers of persuasion, oh no, by usurping a black woman's identity. That is where the fraud is.

As I've posted before, I don't necessrily condone this woman's actions, especially if she set out to deliberately deceive people. However, I think it's quite telling that when answering her detractors, she was reported to have said, "maybe think about W E B Du Bois that said race is usually biological, always cultural".

This suggests that she may have been attempting to adopt being 'black' as her new cultural identity. As to whether she chose to deceive others into believing she was 'black', remains to seen. I guess when you have an understanding of race being a social construct, then it really doesn't matter if you go on to label yourself as being black or white.

 

[Buckaroo]

The dreaded carrot people.

In fairness she didn't go as far as dreads, stuck with an african perm.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

She still could have become a professor in AA studies and been honest about her ethnicity.

Not after lying to get a grant, she couldn't.

 

[Pickman's model]

I always wonder in these cases whether people decide one day that they are going to start lying about things, or whether it begins with just not correcting minor misunderstandings, allowing people to believe misapprehensions, and then just snowballs.

varies from case to case

next

 

[MochaSoul]

She still could have become a professor in AA studies and been honest about her ethnicity.

... and pass up on the "heroicism" of being a single mum living in terror for her children? Nah!!!

 

[butchersapron]

I always wonder in these cases whether people decide one day that they are going to start lying about things, or whether it begins with just not correcting minor misunderstandings, allowing people to believe misapprehensions, and then just snowballs.

Future plans were made on the basis of the lie over many areas. Not a snowballing thing. Get some backbone.

 

[DotCommunist]

She was not the head of the NAACP..she was more like a regional spokesperson.
Also, it's not unusual for people to tell even bigger lies to cover the ones they told before and go to silly lengths to cover up all of the lies they are telling. Some people get in over their heads and don't cut their losses by fessing up or stopping. They take it further...

She still could have become a professor in AA studies and been honest about her ethnicity.

oh I see like regional branch spokesperson as butchers alluded to (I had to look tring up.) Must read articles closer. Yeah I know the spiralling lie, you're supposed to learn not to weave to decieve when you get caught doing it at schooly age when you are no good at it though.

 

[butchersapron]

Much in the same way that a person who identifies so much with another culture or persona, might then internalise and adopt the same lifestyle for themselves so that it forms a new identity for them.


As I've posted before, I don't necessrily condone this woman's actions, especially if she set out to deliberately deceive people. However, I think it's quite telling that when answering her detractors, she was reported to have said, "maybe think about W E B Du Bois that said race is usually biological, always cultural".

This suggests that she may have been attempting to adopt being 'black' as her new cultural identity. As to whether she chose to deceive others into believing she was 'black', remains to seen. I guess when you have an understanding of race being a social construct, then it really doesn't matter if you go on to label yourself as being black or white.

What does your necessarily say? What does her face say? What does she say?

 

[butchersapron]

oh I see like regional branch spokesperson as butchers alluded to (I had to look tring up.) Must read articles closer. Yeah I know the spiralling lie, you're supposed to learn not to weave to decieve when you get caught doing it at schooly age when you are no good at it though.

Tring is great.

 

[8ball]

I guess when you have an understanding of race being a social construct, then it really doesn't matter if you go on to label yourself as being black or white.

I think it matters, and has real consequences. As MochaSoul points out in #509.

 

[butchersapron]

In fairness she didn't go as far as dreads, stuck with an african perm.

Oh she did, she went there.

 

[Treacle Toes]

I hope you're not calling me ginger.

My hair goes red in the sun. I like red hair on myself and others.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I think it matters, and has real consequences. As MochaSoul points out in #509.

Of course it matters. Its nature as a social construct doesn't mean you have a free-for-all. According to the social construct that is race, this person is not what she was saying she was. And not even she believed she was.

 

[Buckaroo]

Oh she did, she went there.

stand corrected, yes she did

 

[MochaSoul]

Much in the same way that a person who identifies so much with another culture or persona, might then internalise and adopt the same lifestyle for themselves so that it forms a new identity for them.


As I've posted before, I don't necessrily condone this woman's actions, especially if she set out to deliberately deceive people. However, I think it's quite telling that when answering her detractors, she was reported to have said, "maybe think about W E B Du Bois that said race is usually biological, always cultural".

This suggests that she may have been attempting to adopt being 'black' as her new cultural identity. As to whether she chose to deceive others into believing she was 'black', remains to seen. I guess when you have an understanding of race being a social construct, then it really doesn't matter if you go on to label yourself as being black or white.

Wow! It's as if racial features were influenced by hormones or something. I really do wish people stopped thinking of race as something you are born with. It's something that is inflicted upon you. We're not talking of teenager in angst rebelling against the privilege that he/she may perceive to take away meaning from his/her life. We're talking about a 26 or 27 yr old that decided to fake a whole identity, complete with denying her own roots for the purposes of being a heroine rising from the clutches of oppression and got caught 10 or so years later.

 

[winifred]

Do you think you would ever describe yourself as just British? Or would you call your children (if you had/ve them BBC) Not having a pop but just interested how far you would take it back.

Of course I would describe myself as British. It's one of many non-derogatory labels that could possibly apply to me. I'd also refer to my own children as British. I wouldn't identify them as 'BBCs', because it's down to them whether or not they want to adopt that label.

I had a mate that when asked where he came from used to reply "The end of my dick" & fuck off you nosey bastard.

Lol! Your friend sounds like a really sociable guy.

 

[Treacle Toes]

oh I see like regional branch spokesperson as butchers alluded to (I had to look tring up.) Must read articles closer. Yeah I know the spiralling lie, you're supposed to learn not to weave to decieve when you get caught doing it at schooly age when you are no good at it though.

You made a decent point earlier about it being like 'passing'...the difference though is that people with some Black hertitage who pass for white or vice versa do not necessarily have to try to. It's their phenotype that allows them to pass. It is often that other people don't see them and all that they are and as such assume they are not Black or have any Black heritage. Reasons for and the ways that people engage in 'passing' are complex.

 

[MochaSoul]

Tring is great.

Show-off!

 

[butchersapron]

(This is a great thread btw. Informative, aggressive - more please)

 

[Treacle Toes]

Much in the same way that a person who identifies so much with another culture or persona, might then internalise and adopt the same lifestyle for themselves so that it forms a new identity for them.


As I've posted before, I don't necessrily condone this woman's actions, especially if she set out to deliberately deceive people. However, I think it's quite telling that when answering her detractors, she was reported to have said, "maybe think about W E B Du Bois that said race is usually biological, always cultural".

Coming from someone who was lying about her own ethnic heritage I would say she was using his words to justify herself. Sure you can adopt culture, but not ethnicity. If I used that quote to validate/represent my ethnic/cultural identity it would have quite a different motive and meaning because I am not lying about who I am and where I am from.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Coming from someone who was lying about her own ethnic heritage I would say she was using his words to justify herself. Sure you can adopt culture, but not ethnicity. If I used that quote to validate/represent my ethnic/cultural identity it would have quite a different motive and meaning because I am not lying about who I am and where I am from.

Yeah, any discussion of this particular case has to start from the point where she is a great big liar. That's where it starts (and pretty much ends).

 

[8ball]

You made a decent point earlier about it being like 'passing'...the difference though is that people with some Black hertitage who pass for white or vice versa do not necessarily have to try to. It's their phenotype that allows them to pass. Reasons for and the ways that people engage in 'passing' are complex.

I hate the term 'passing'. Like that 'one drop' bollocks.

It's like implying some crime has been committed in not only breaching expected norms of racial purity, but that the crime is compounded by not signposting it.

 

[nino_savatte]

Meet Walter F White, the leader of the NAACP from 1931 to 1955. White passed as 'white' because of his white skin, blond hair and blue eyes (he was of mixed parentage). This allowed him to go deep undercover and report on lynching and the activities of the KKK. Sadly, White threw Paul Robeson under the bus during the McCarthy witch hunts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Francis_White