Identity Crisis, A Tale Of Two Women

Rachel Dolezal, the president of the Spokane, Washington, chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and also a professor of Africana studies, was revealed to be in fact a White woman although for years she has presented herself and identified as Black. Ok maybe the right wing conservatives are right and we have gotten to a post-racial America. I mean White people are now passing for Black? WTF! Seriously, so many questions. Apparently she was outed as White by her White parents who pretty much described her as a complete loon. And before we all attack the parents and question their motives ask yourself how you would react if you found out your daughter had rejected her ancestry and lineage and decided to pass for white. She’s lied for years and denied her parents, you know the ones that adopted four Black children and raised them? That’s right mom and dad of whom she has made numerous disparaging remarks have adopted Black children.

I know a lot of you are saying “so what, she has done a lot of good work for her NAACP chapter. She should be lauded for her accomplishments and her dedication.” Granted, but couldn’t she have done the same thing as a White woman? Wouldn’t you have more respect for her as a White woman with a heart for social justice and without the façade of a struggle? An interview she gave was recently released. In it she said her Black grandfather fought back and hit a white cop and had to leave town with her then 5 year old father in the middle of the night or they would have been killed. She also said her Black father was an officer in the Marines who was almost killed three times by his White soldiers. Don’t know about you but dumb shit like this leads me to question the authenticity of her work. Her accomplishments may have been many but reaching them under the guise of a struggling Black woman is questionable and at the least extremely deceitful.

So she permed her hair developed Black affectations and reinvented herself in blackface. Oh, did I mention this was after she sued Howard University for reverse racial discrimination. Yep, 14 years ago Rachel Dolezal then known as Rachel Moore, the white lady from Montana, sued Howard University claiming she was denied a teaching assistant position based on race. To be clear based on the fact that she was denied the position as a White woman. She also claimed her artwork was removed from a student exhibition in favor of African-American students. But to be fair this was before she identified as Black so maybe we should cut her some slack. So let’s recap. Before she became a sister down with the struggle she was a put upon White woman being hated on by the Blacks. But after she herself became Black she recounted on many occasions the discrimination she faced as an African-American woman, with mile high dookey braids, in the largely white community of Spokane…loon doesn’t do her justice. I guess her race just comes and goes dependent on the benefits afforded to her.

Here’s the deal being Black is not something that you can just put on and take off. It’s not a fad. And to be clear, misappropriation of Black culture is nothing new but this is some new level shit. This woman has publically called out Iggy Azalea the White female rapper from Australia for attempting to be down and for her insulting racial affectations. She said as a Black woman she was insulted…except you’re not a Black woman you nut ball. She attacked White people who became involved in the Black Lives Matter movement saying that because they’re White they would not be able to understand the perspective of Black people and their plight in this country for equality. Talk about projection.

I don’t know, maybe she felt bad about the Howard lawsuit or felt some kinship to her Black adoptive siblings. But how do you look at her work authentically when she claimed to look at situations through the eyes of a member of an affected racial group when in fact she wasn't? There are several Whites around the country who lead chapters of the NAACP and there always have been. In fact the NAACP was started by White people but none faked being Black. The organization has a rich history of a racially diverse leadership, both at the local and national levels. To be clear just because you have shared the Black experience (whatever the hell that means) does not make you Black. You want to work for causes go right ahead but “you ain’t got to lie Craig”. Her deception was unnecessary and insulting.