White civil rights leader has pretended to be black for years

[Athos]

I don't have a word for it, just an example that I use to show how race can cut across class lines. Imagine well connected nice car high flying black barrister stopped in the wrong county by the wrong police. He's going to get the treatment. And yes obvs thats shading over all sorts of other things but thats just the starkest example I can think of

Yeah. But, when the extension of that is to suggest that a working class bloke is resistive privileged because he happens to be white, it becomes a nonsense. And, even if he were privileged, where does that take us? It says nothing about the relative value of their respective thoughts and actions.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

The standard image of Southern slavery is that of a large plantation with hundreds of slaves. In fact, such situations were rare. Fully 3/4 of Southern whites did not even own slaves; of those who did, 88% owned twenty or fewer. Whites who did not own slaves were primarily yeoman farmers. Practically speaking, the institution of slavery did not help these people. And yet most non-slaveholding white Southerners identified with and defended the institution of slavery. Though many resented the wealth and power of the large slaveholders, they aspired to own slaves themselves and to join the priviledged ranks. In addition, slavery gave the farmers a group of people to feel superior to. They may have been poor, but they were not slaves, and they were not black. They gained a sense of power simply by being white.

Antebellum slavery

 

[Pickman's model]

I don't have a word for it, just an example that I use to show how race can cut across class lines. Imagine well connected nice car high flying black barrister stopped in the wrong county by the wrong police. He's going to get the treatment. And yes obvs thats shading over all sorts of other things but thats just the starkest example I can think of

A lot of wrongs there. You emphasise it is the exception rather than rule. Yer man's connections likely to help him. How would an unassuming black lecturer with a beautiful but relatively cheap 20 year auld jaguar fare in the same circs?

 

[likesfish]

does rather show ID politics up for the stupidity it is.


Politics based on Skin color or genitals was stupid when it was white supremacist and men are in charge.
Its no less stupid if its women only and black only the whole attack on trans people who make up 0.1% of the population is barking if somebody is going through transition they arnt doing that for a giggle.

 

[Treacle Toes]

Rachel Dolezal’s pick-your-race policy works brilliantly – as long as you’re white | Claire Hynes


Just spotted this, haven't read it yet as I can't bring myself to indulge the fantasist today even if it is an article slating her.

 

[YouSir]

Rachel Dolezal’s pick-your-race policy works brilliantly – as long as you’re white | Claire Hynes


Just spotted this, haven't read it yet as I can't bring myself to indulge the fantasist today even if it is an article slating her.

Not worth it, article's not wrong but if you've checked the headline you've got the rest really.

Has anyone ever challenged her on what her definition of her 'blackness' is? From what I've seen of her history it seems to just be random pick'n'mix stuff, grabbing cultural aspects from whatever group she found interesting at the time and defending it all under some generalised racial label. As if by 'picking' her race she's got as much right to, and as much understanding of, the experience of being a black Nigerian as the experience of being black in the Deep South. Seems as ridiculous as the rest of her schtik.

 

[butchersapron]

Her rejection of race is actually a very strong embrace of the idea of race isn't it?

 

[YouSir]

Her rejection of race is actually a very strong embrace of the idea of race isn't it?

Overwhelmingly so, aye.

 

[newbie]

just throw this in here because, like it or not, we're all subject to definition about identity and for some it matters who does the defining.

I myself am a white person. It’s true that, technically speaking, I’m a bit brown but, when it comes to my legal standing, I’m all white. Well, I’m white in America anyway. The US Census Bureau, you see, defines “white” as “a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa”. Being half-Palestinian and half-English I fall squarely into that box.



But I may not be able to hang out in that box much longer. There are plans afoot to add a new “Middle East/North Africa” category to the US census. After 70-plus years of having to tick “white” or “other” on administrative documents, people originating from the Middle East and North Africa may soon have their own category.

Whether our very own check box is a privilege or petrifying is still to be decided.

I’m a bit brown. But in America I’m white. Not for much longer| Arwa Mahdawi

 

[Athos]

Her rejection of race is actually a very strong embrace of the idea of race isn't it?

Her rejection of a biological basis for race goes hand in hand with her embracing a self-defined, culturally-informed basis.

 

[butchersapron]

Her rejection of a biological basis for race goes hand in hand with her embracing a self-defined, culturally-informed basis.

A cultural reading of race that seems to be about 2 mm deep and informed more by media/celeb stereotypes than anything else (by her, not you). But i'm sure we've done this in the thread already.

 

[Athos]

A cultural reading of race that seems to be about 2 mm deep and informed more by media/celeb stereotypes than anything else (by her, not you). But i'm sure we've done this in the thread already.

Yes (to both).

 

[Fozzie Bear]

She was predictably vague and annoying on Newsnight last night.

The main thing that struck me was her claim that she was now marginalised and unable to find work. This was ably punctured by the black woman commentator who followed the interview, who pointed out that she has a book deal and is promoting it through national media so probably isn't all that marginalised compared to many people. Her schtick in this respect reminded me of all those white middle aged commentators who go on about being silenced in their national newspaper columns.

Also encouraging "people to be exactly who they are” has more in common with Hollywood "live the dream" bullshit the collective resistance that you would hope would inspire someone who was an activist for the NAACP.

 

[spanglechick]

Which theory?

The theory that, if you take any given person, no matter who, and add up all the things that make their life crap, their life would be MORE crap if they were themself, but also suffered from the oppressions of racism or disability or whatever.

So, to use Dotty's example above. Our rich black barrister experiences racism, but if he were also working class, or disabled, or transgender, he'd experience even worse oppression.

 

[Athos]

The theory that, if you take any given person, no matter who, and add up all the things that make their life crap, their life would be MORE crap if they were themself, but also suffered from the oppressions of racism or disability or whatever.

So, to use Dotty's example above. Our rich black barrister experiences racism, but if he were also working class, or disabled, or transgender, he'd experience even worse oppression.

But, at the hypothetical level, that's so obvious as to be banal. And, at a practical level is next to useless, given the likelihood of finding two otherwise identical people, and in light of the fact knowing who is the most theoretically oppressed individual in a room doesn't tell us much about overcoming oppression, and because of how the idea of 'privilege' is often used in practice.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

And this is brought to us direct from Harvard, that great pool of oppressed peoples; well, they can be now, can't they?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

The theory that, if you take any given person, no matter who, and add up all the things that make their life crap, their life would be MORE crap if they were themself, but also suffered from the oppressions of racism or disability or whatever. .

Can you split these things up like that, taking class analyses and applying them to individuals? Any given person will have widely differing experiences of the various categories they can be fit into, and the influence of those various categories on their struggles will vary hugely. For instance, if you're homeless and living on the streets, being, and being perceived as, a homeless person will be the most immediate and, I would think, overwhelming fact about you.

 

[8den]

Donald Glover in his very funny sharp and relevant show "Atlanta" skewered this story merciless, by having a local news segment with a black teenager announcing he identifies as a 35yo white guy from Colorado, just highly the absurdities of this situation how if a black man decided to identify as white how ridiculous it would sound.



Not the best quality

 

[Idris2002]

A relevant story from Australia, of "Helen Demidenko", an anti-semitic novelist who passed herself as the descendant of Ukraine famine survivors, despite being no such thing:

The return of Helen Demidenko: from literary hoaxer to political operator | Jeff Sparrow

"Free market libertarianism prizes freedom, understood primarily as the freedom to buy or sell. It puts no particular value on truth. Thus, in our neoliberal age, there will always be opportunities for people prepared to make stuff up."

 

[Treacle Toes]

The contradiction at the heart of Rachel Dolezal's 'transracialism'

 

[iona]

She's been interviewed by someone at the BBC about her forthcoming book and she talks about the concept of 'transracialism', which apparently is a bit like being transgendered only changing race.

There's a link to the video interview on the BBC website (it's called The idea of race is a lie) but I'm having trouble pasting the link on my phone.

Not having a dig but just ftr "transgender" is already an adjective so you don't need to add an -ed onto it (and some people actually feel quite strongly about being called "transgendered")

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Some people also get heavily offended by language where no offence is intended.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

And it's fucking up the left tbh, if you want my view.

 

[Idris2002]

African-American woman journo ventures into the Heart of Whiteness that is Dolezal:

"It's clear I have pushed her to the edge of frenzy"

The Heart of Whiteness: Ijeoma Oluo Interviews Rachel Dolezal, the White Woman Who Identifies as Black

The horror, the horror.

 

[Anudder Oik]

It's cultural appropriation gorn maad, init.

 

[pengaleng]

Some people also get heavily offended by language where no offence is intended.

you can generally tell when something said is intentionally off key, vocally i mean

 

[pengaleng]

my problem with this trans-racial shit is because it's not even close to transgender people, with them they were always there, the internet has just provided the means to know other people are like them networking is a lot easier, , where are all the trans-racial people is basically what i wanna know, there aint any theres just this one woman who everyone thinks is a dickhead, it's not the same because anyone has the capacity to develop into whatever foetal state of preference 50/50 chances, if yer born to white parents whats the chances of you coming out of the womb with black skin providing yer mam aint been sleeping around, you aint even got any internal deep genetic knowledge to blame that shit on. fuck these people, well just one person, cus theres only one. the lone doezal. there isnt even any fucking epigenetics to switch genes on and off with this one, lads.

 

[Celyn]

Rachel Dolezal is very very weird. That recent interview with her, https://www.thestranger.com/features/2017/04/19/2508245 0/the-heart-of-whiteness-ijeoma-oluo-interviews-rachel-dolezal-the-white-woman-who-identifies-as-black

had her as an amazingly sure-of-herself person. She is always right, and anyone at all who dares to disagree is a bit stupid because they haven't read the right books.

Oops, sorry, she's not Rachel Dolezal any more. She has a new name.

 

[8den]

Rachel Dolezal is very very weird. That recent interview with her, https://www.thestranger.com/features/2017/04/19/2508245 0/the-heart-of-whiteness-ijeoma-oluo-interviews-rachel-dolezal-the-white-woman-who-identifies-as-black

had her as an amazingly sure-of-herself person. She is always right, and anyone at all who dares to disagree is a bit stupid because they haven't read the right books.

Oops, sorry, she's not Rachel Dolezal any more. She has a new name.

i've loved the stranger since I lived in Seattle. One of the best free papers in the world.

 

[Casually Red]

Fucking disgrace