White civil rights leader has pretended to be black for years

[Yossarian]

She wasn't a white person identifying with the downtrodden , she was downtrodden because she was white, became self hating and identified with her abusers.

The woman obviously has a lot of problems and has behaved very stupidly but it doesn't sound like she has zero experience of being downtrodden - apparently, she was still identifying as white when she married a black man and had his baby in Mississippi, which can't be an easy road to walk down in KKK country.

 

[Casually Red]

I'm sure if she'd had a burning cross on her lawn shed have told the world about it at length . Despite the fact shed probably put it there herself .

 

[8ball]

I don't think you can distinguish between deception on the one hand and good advocacy work on the other, except as an intellectual exercise.

I was using it highlight my interpretation of the kind of damage she has done. Her position in the NAACP was not dependent on her being black, as the NAACP said. they also said their stood behind her advocacy work.

It's more sad IMO if she has actually done lots of good advocacy work, but this has now been sullied because she was not honest with everyone.

 

[Lurdan]

Seems clear to me that the woman is a liar and some kind of shithead. But that doesn't make all the allegations being made about her true. I imagine those having to question their relationship with her where there is in fact no basis to the allegations now being made about her dealings with them are also pretty pissed off. Part of what makes her lies so toxic.

Interesting article at Snopes which links to some older newspaper articles raising questions about her truthfulness, and is a little more cautious about some of the claims being made about her actions :

Rachel Dolezal NAACP Controversy - Snopes

 

[Wilf]

I'd be absolutely fucking raging if I'd been on the receiving end of her deception. I'd be spitting feathers.

I'd hope I would, but I'd guess there'd be a few hours where you have to reorganise your psychological defences and finally admit that you've been had. And all so shitty because it has happened at a time of real racism and murder in America.

 

[Wilf]

Seems clear to me that the woman is a liar and some kind of shithead. But that doesn't make all the allegations being made about her true. I imagine those having to question their relationship with her where there is in fact no basis to the allegations now being made about her dealings with them are also pretty pissed off. Part of what makes her lies so toxic.

Interesting article at Snopes which links to some older newspaper articles raising questions about her truthfulness, and is a little more cautious about some of the claims being made about her actions :

Rachel Dolezal NAACP Controversy - Snopes

The video in that link has her 'looking white' in 2011 (view it from 0.40). This is where I came in on this thread. I'd thought it was odd in an internet era that someone could think their highschool yearbooks from a decade or more earlier could be ignored. In fact she seems to have reinvented herself even more recently - and somehow thought she could ignore a white public profile from just 48 months ago. Interestingly, the reporter refers to 'her African American Peers' at the end. Ambiguous phrase, but I'd take that as the reporter regarding her as self evidently white.

 

[Citizen66]

There's a touch of the emporer's new clothes about it too. Mixed race people can be light skinned. We're told that it isn't for us to identify on behalf of other people. It would be rude to point at someone who says they're mixed race and demand that they are, actually, white. It's unsurprising that it took for her parents to let the cat out of the bag for the house of cards to come tumbling down tbh.

 

[frogwoman]

She also told a student that they didnt look hispanic!

 

[Citizen66]

That's some brass neck.

 

[frogwoman]

That's some brass neck.

http://jezebel.com/rachel-dolezal-told-a-student-she-didn-t-look-hispanic-1711101139

 

[8ball]

That's some brass neck.

It fucking is!

 

[Lurdan]

It's even better than that :

“Rachel said I didn’t look Hispanic,” she said, and that her instructor “doubted that I could share experiences of racial or ethnic discrimination because I didn’t have the appearance of looking Hispanic.”

Clearly she inhabits an irony free zone.

 

[8ball]

Clearly she inhabits an irony free zone.

Yeah, you head West for a few thousand miles past Ireland...

 

[Citizen66]

The thing about the mail having no time stamp. If you were going to post pictures of lynchings to yourself then at least have it go through the postal service. You can explain your fingerprints being all over it by the fact you opened the package.

 

[Wilf]

The thing about the mail having no time stamp. If you were going to post pictures of lynchings to yourself then at least have it go through the postal service. You can explain your fingerprints being all over it by the fact you opened the package.

She's clearly never watched Columbo.

The University have just about dropped her (saw something last night where they were stressing she didn't have tenure) and the naacp will ultimately drop her. However 18 months from now she'll be heading something else up. My probably unnecessary speculation is an abuse survivors organisation (which is of course exactly what she might be, who knows).

 

[Citizen66]

So you want me to make up a word for something that doesn't exist instead of merely describing someone's behaviour?

Just unearthed this little nugget:

Dolezal hinted at her self-appointed racial identity in another Coeur d’Alene Press story, published in 2009, where she described herself as “trans-racial” – a description that with hindsight could be seen as similar to transgender.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/13/rachel-dolezal-blackface-race-brother

 

[Idris2002]

That's some brass neck.

And a pair of steel balls the size of Cleveland.

 

[8ball]

Just unearthed this little nugget:

Ezra's comments towards the end of the article sum things up nicely for me.

 

[ViolentPanda]

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 I'm asking myself is "how long did she have to source quotes from historic blacks to support her deception if she ever got caught?". Years. Years in which to construct justifications for her behaviour.

 

[winifred]

so you think you can post up any auld shite and refuse to defend it on the specious grounds it's only your opinion.

I don't pretend to have all the answers. I have my own views and opinions that I openly express - as do you. The difference being that you have the outright arrogance to state that you're right, and that others are so clearly wrong (according to yourself).

But I feel that your arrogance belies the fact that there is little or no substance to what I've observed thus far re: your posts. Don't be surprised if I ignore you in future. I didn't join this site to have members like yourself casting aspersions on the way that I post.

 

[J Ed]

Rachel Dolezal to Adopted Black Brother: "Don't Blow My Cover"

 

[Arty Drum]

http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/977732-rachel-dolezals-racial-identity-controversy

ouch

 

[Pickman's model]

I don't pretend to have all the answers. I have my own views and opinions that I openly express - as do you. The difference being that you have the outright arrogance to state that you're right, and that others are so clearly wrong (according to yourself).

But I feel that your arrogance belies the fact that there is little or no substance to what I've observed thus far re: your posts. Don't be surprised if I ignore you in future. I didn't join this site to have members like yourself casting aspersions on the way that I post.

you do yourself no favours by posting crap you cannot or will not back up.put me on ignore, it makes no difference as you're a shallow, vacuous little man. i can't change that, i doubt you can either

 

[butchersapron]

The post above, we're her teachers made clear she wasn't welcome due to her skin colour . Ostracisation counts as bullying and abuse .

FACT

 

[winifred]

I have challenged you on your own use of 'stereotypes', when you were speaking for yourself and not for others. You are now ualifyng and saying 'those' people over there, which changes what you have said because it suggests you haven't internalised the very same perceptions.

I have always been speaking for myself and myself alone. The use of the term 'indigeous', in relation to white British being thought of as indigenous to Britain, is usually used by the far right to argue against the further proliferation of non whites into British society.

Obviously, that's an unfounded fear that the white British gene pool will somehow become tainted by continued immigration into the country. However, I still believe that what some might regard as being a 'stereotype' re: indigenous Brits being 'white', risks creating the kind of revisionist picture that we often see in contemporary fiction. An example being a former BBC series ('Merlin'), which portrayed a 'multicultural' medieval Britain, where Guinevere was played by a black actress.

You want to speak generally, go ahead. But be clear about it. Also, do not pat my head and imply I do not know the experience of Non-white people in this country, past and present, how dare you. I am one of them.

I wasn't setting out to patronise you. The fact that most non white British people have probably experienced some level of racism in their lives, is usually indicative of being seen to be different = 'non white'.

I agree that we are all 'indigenous Brits' in the contemporary sense, but our experiences of racism still serve as a continual reminder that we're essentially a minority within a predominantly white society.

 

[winifred]

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

I think the example that you're referring to was of this white woman taking on a 'black' identity story, which inadvertantly took media attention away from a more important black rights issue.

That was an unintended consequence to what I'm talking about, which is peoples freedom of expression to be who they choose to be. We've already established that race and gender are socially constructed, so in much the same way that gender reassignment is now accepted within society, why can't people be allowed to adopt a racial identity? As long as they're not harming anyone, and have genuine reasons for doing so, then who are we to judge?

 

[8ball]

We've already established that race and gender are socially constructed, so in much the same way that gender reassignment is now accepted within society, why can't people be allowed to adopt a racial identity? As long as they're not harming anyone, and have genuine reasons for doing so, then who are we to judge?

We've covered this shit multiple times on this thread. She could have got a tan, done her hair how she liked, hung out with whomever she wanted, aligned herself with a particular set of cultural genres etc. and that would have been fine by a lot (maybe not all, but a lot) of people.

It was when she presented herself as someone who had directly experienced (not emphasised with, but directly experienced) racial prejudice and aggression that she usurped a position that she had no right to.

So yes, I agree that she shouldn't be judged on those criteria you cite. It's just that she is being judged on completely different criteria.

 

[Casually Red]

I think the example that you're referring to was of this white woman taking on a 'black' identity story, inadvertantly taking media attention away from a more important black rights issue.

That was an unintended consequence to what I'm talking about, which is peoples freedom of expression to be who they choose to be. We've already established that race and gender are socially constructed, so in much the same way that gender reassignment is now accepted within society, why can't people be allowed to adopt a racial identity? As long as they're not harming anyone, and have genuine reasons for doing so, then who are we to judge?

Please wise up. I'm not black but if I where'd I'd be well insulted at white people thinking my race was just a costume they could adopt to fill the empty space in their squalid little fuck up of a life . There are no genuine reasons for doing this .

If you support freedom of expression to this ridiculous degree then youre then obliged to support my right to regard anyone who does this , and anyone who supports it , as a complete and utter wanker .

 

[Casually Red]

Jesus I've just seen one of her tweets were she's slagging off some black man for going out with white women . If it ever transpires...and this is not beyond the realms of madness..that she's been using the N word, because she's black and allowed to , then she will be SO FUCKED. To a degree I'll have to switch the Internet off and not look .

 

[Casually Red]

http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/977732-rachel-dolezals-racial-identity-controversy

ouch

I really liked that first scooby doo one .