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Rachel Dolezal
June 16, 2015 - 2:04pm
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Just sayin'.
It's a difficult topic. What she did was wrong. She seems like a good person, well-intentioned. Apparently she is well respected for the work she has done. Black people or African Americans, whichever you prefer, are divided. Some seem less condemning than a lot of white people who insist she did it for privilege or is mentally ill.
Others are making comparisons to Jenner while others insist it isn't the same thing.
I think it's a fascinating discussion but I am not sure there is any way to have it without accusations of racism and/or transphobia.
Just sayin' what?
Rachel Dolezal Definitely Nailed The Hair, I'll Give Her That
this is about where I'm at
Rachel Dolezal's definition of 'transracial' isn't just wrong, it's destructive
As far as the insistence that one can't identify as, or "be" legitimately black (whereas one can identify legitimately as, or "be" a different gender) I have not seen any convincing arguments.
Jezebel has a few articles, one of which states:
and
1) the NAACP is not a place where a "ton of black people" could call her out?
2) how is this argument any different from those skeptical of trans identities?
Why are any of you defending her? Good intentions? Taking a scholarship intended for a black student isn't well-intentioned. Blame the parents? Whaaaa? I don't care how shitty your family is, you don't build a career on a web of lies as intricate as this.
Dolezal couldn't have done this semi-intentionally. It's just too much effort.
I wondered all that too. I still do, even as the story gets more bizarre by the minute:
Rachel Dolezal’s brother, author Joshua Dolezal, faces trial for alleged sexual abuse of a black child
What was her motivation? To cash in on all that black privilege?
Very good question, sort of. That is to say, I think it is only being brought up as a foil. Not to drag this off-topic, but though it might be easy to draw a comparison in theory, on a practical level there is a big difference.
I'm not guessing at her motivation - could be any number of things. But blaming it on her parents? They made her apply for a scholarship for POC? How do you come to that conclusion?
There was a tweet that said something to the effect of being at the bottom of one hierarchy and choosing to be at the top of another... I don't know if that's it, either. Ultimately, only Dolezal knows, and she's not saying.
Maybe it was in response to some of the allegations she makes here:
http://easterneronline.com/35006/eagle-life/a-life-to-be-heard/#sthash.e...
Here's what the NAACP said on June 12:
And after she resigned on June 15:
There's at least *some* biological evidence that we were all, at one point in our embryonic development, female -- then we either become male or we remain female. So it's not entirely unreasonable to think that perhaps in that process, mistakes happen.
There's no similar evidence that we all start off Asian and then become caucasian (or not) or that we all start as African-American and then become caucasian (or not).
I'm not sure that our common embryonic origins are an argument used in trans advocacy, but for that matter, our genes also code for physiological characteristics at some embryonic point, so you could argue that mistakes with brain mapping can happen there, too.
Talib Kweli on Rachel Dolezal: 'You're Not an Ally, You're an Enemy'
For my money, white rap is in the same category.
I especially agree with the last one. This whole story - both her, her publicly shaming parents and now, her alleged child-abusive brother, are fodder for a typical "reality show". To play down the real issues of racism, such as economic and housing discrimination, and police/guard violence.
Race is a complex issue en Murka (and many other places) due to the "one-drop" rule. I have a Jamaican friend who has blonde, but kinky hair, and skin about the colour Rachel tinted or tanned hers to. Many very light-skinned racially mixed people in South Africa got classified as "coloured" and the same happened in the South of the USA.
This is purely my guess, but perhaps to gain a more signficant sense of identity. To belong to a group that seems more valid than "Heinz57 white person of mixed white heritage".
But the biological differences between male and female are much greater than biological differences between people of various colours.
The defence for allowing people to transition between male and female is based purely on the individual being convinced that they are the opposite sex to which they were born so wanting to live their life as someone of that sex would. That is achieved through various medical treatments allowing them to appear as they were born of the opposite sex, not because they are the opposite sex, but because they personally identity as the opposite sex.
Identifying as a person of a different colour is far less dramatic and transitioning doesn't require any medical treatment. Her ability to publically identity as black without any appearence problems just goes to show how minor the differences really are.
Having been raised with black siblings, married a black man and raised black children she was by proxy subjected to racism. To racists fraternizing with blacks is just as bad or worse than actually being black.
She has certainly "lived black" more than Jenner has lived as a woman. Jenner lived as a man with full male privilege including competing as a male athelete and marrying twice and having children with both wives, and she says she is not a lesbian. If Jenner is sexually attracted to women, but not a lesbian, that would result in being a straight effeminate male. I am not convinced that Jenner fits the description of a trans woman.
Apparently in her article in Vanity Fair she says that when she and Chris married that Chris was nice to her but that when Chris didn't need her anymore (because of the success of her reality show) Chris wasn't as nice to her anymore and that is why their marriage failed.
I can see taking a long time to come out, a lifetime even, but "Bruce" had gender issues throughout life that are more likely to have impacted the marriages. Chris is heterosexual and thought she was married to a man. Blaming Chris for not being "nice" enough after having her own money speaks volumes.
Now, instead of being Bruce, a has-been man that cross-dresses, we now have Caitlyn, a beautiful woman, courageous and brave, with her very own reality TV show in competition with the Kardashians. Caitlyn may well believe that she is a woman but I'm not convinced. I definitely don't think she is being brave by turning her transition into a TV reality show. I think she loves it.
Dolezal has lived more of a black life than Jenner has a woman's life. Yes she has profited professionally by it but I don't believe that was her motivation for doing it. I believe she does identity with the black community to the extent that she became black at least in her own mind and lived outwardly as a black person and was treated as one.
Jenner is being celebrated, and Dolezal has been professionally destroyed, most likely economically devastated, and is facing possible criminal charges.
Doesn't seem fair.
Race is a human construct. Sex isn't. Gender is.
Depends. And that's not saying I don't have the same gut feeling about those who adopt lingo and accent (though we don't say the same about Native or other rap).
But if we are going to say that, we'd have to extend it to jazz, blues and rock and roll as well. Pretending to be another race is one thing (and of course it is different for some who feel they have to pass as white). But if race is complicated - and it is - art is even moreso.
Pondering
Not everyone is celebrating Jenner. And many who celebrate her coming out criticize her politics, and some of the things she has done, and point out both her privilege, and her conforming to traditional style.
That said, she hasn't tried to pass someone else off as her father, pressured others to keep secrets, lied about her heritage and worked her way into an advocacy group on false pretenses.
Again, there are plenty of differences between these two situations.
Or it could be fetishism.
Dolezal is a higly mendacious person who not only made 8 complaints of hate crimes and said a random black guy was her dad, but also told her brothers not to "out" her.
And then there's the lawsuit against Howard University, an African-American college:
http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2015/06/rachel_dolezal_sued_howard_...
When a person of the dominant class assumes the identity of the oppressed class, that's appropriation. How can any of you defend that?
Pondering I enjoyed reading your post. I agree that race and gender are both social constructs and would add that any analysis has to take into account imbalances of power and privilege, ie, white privilege, and male privilege. Identity politics that doesn't take into account systemic oppression is nothing more than a fashion show (Rachel in her fake dreads, Bruce in his bustier) that serves to erase the lived experiences of genuinely oppressed people (African-Americans, women).
Here are some comments that I agree with.
"Your race is a part of your heritage. Transgender is not a part of heritage. Your race is passed to you. If your ancestors and parents are black, you are black. Transgender is a feeling that aches inside you and longs to come out. You can pretend to be another race, but transgender is not pretending."
She's a liar and a thief. She's a hypocritical wretch and the ultimate example of White privilege and cultural appropriation. She isn't black because she "feels black". I feel rich, so let me go rob a bank and do a little identity theft on the side all. She had the wherewithal to tell her brother not to sell her out. She knew exactly what the F she was doing. Bamboozle and conquer. If her motives weren't completely self-serving, she would have become a white civil rights activist. End of."
Transracial is actually a real word. It refers to adoptive children of a differencet race than their parents.Heres a nice video from a black trans woman who explained why its insulting to conflate this issue with being transgender
http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/06/rachel-dolezal-not-transracial/
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Shall we call this "tartan-face"?
You heard it here first.
In high school I had a friend who so identified with the Beatles, and in particular Paul McCartney, that he began to adopt a Liverpudlian accent. If wishes were fishes...