Friday, June 12, 2015

Just When You Thought You Heard It All News! A White Women Pretends To Be Black!

This is by far the most outlandish story that I've ever heard. An epic tale that was made for "Just When You Thought You Heard It All News" A white woman who not only made a conscious decision to pass as a Black woman, but became president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP! I'm going to ask the question that I imagine both  black and white people are probably asking themselves. Of course for different reason, but never the less, why would anybody, especially somebody who just happens to be white, want to pass as black? Don't get me wrong, I love being Black, but I would love it more if I did not have to constantly navigate my way through a systematically racist society. That is to say that if I could choose to be African-American without the African-American struggle, I would do so in a heartbeat. But the reality is that racism is just a part of our journey. As far as Caucasians are concerned, I believe that there are those who would never choose to be Black simply because they believe that they are superior, and there are those who sympathize, but want no parts of what Black people experience. The thing that both have in common is that neither one of them want to be Black.
There have always been white people who have tanned themselves, gotten lip injection, butt implants, and have even went so far as to take on "black traits". But Rachel Dolezal has done what is basically the racial equivalent of "jumping the shark", she chose to "change" her race. Dolezal, 37, is president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, works as a part time professor of the Africana Studies Program at Eastern Washington University and is dubbed "one of the Inland Northwest’s most prominent civil rights activists," according to the Spokesman-Review. She is chairwoman of the city’s Office of Police Ombudsman Commission, and identified herself as white, black and American Indian on her application. She also has published numerous blogs about being black in America on the Inlander. It has been reported that Dolazel attended Howard University, which is an HBCU for 4 years on a full scholarship.
However, her family is saying she is actually a white woman of European descent. Photos from her childhood show her as a blond, white child.
"It’s very sad that Rachel has not just been herself,” her mother, Ruthanne Dolezal, told the Spokesman-Review, revealing that Rachel began to disguise herself as a Black woman in 2006 or 2007 after the family adopted four African-American children. “Her effectiveness in the causes of the African-American community would have been so much more viable, and she would have been more effective if she had just been honest with everybody.”
When pressed by local media outlets Dolezal still insists that she is African-American as if she actually believes that she is. 
In his last interview noted author James Baldwin said that he believes that "whiteness" is as much a state of mind as it is a color, and I personally believe that "blackness" is as much a state of mind as it is a color. With that being said, could Dolezal's identifying herself as African-American be legitimate. Of course not. But, if the "gay community" can stand on the premise that  they are who they feel like they are inside regardless of their outward appearance, then why doesn't this woman have the right to make the same claim? Don't get me wrong. there is no doubt in my mind that she "kuku for coco puffs" but in my opinion my supposition is no more outlandish than many other claims used to justify other "alternative lifestyles."

PR

No comments:

Post a Comment