No matter how it looks, it’s not a simple case of black and white. The twisted tale of Rachel Dolezal — the white woman who reimagined herself black is a comment on American’s fraught racial history and current racial tension. It’s actually an all too familiar context, which often leaves white Americans confused and black Americans angry.
When I first heard about Dolezal I thought it was a weird story of a woman caught up in a personal fantasy gone public. Another white person co-opting black cultural idioms or hairstyles as costume. What some public critics accurately describe as modern day blackface. Hipsters, are you listening?
As I learned more details, I’ve actually come to believe that what Dolezal did is less delusional and more calculated by someone who knew how to employ racial biases for her own benefit. Dolezal sued historically black Howard University charging the school discriminated against her because she was white. (This despite the school’s long history of enrolling white students.) Later when ‘white’ Rachel became ‘black’, she reapplied to Howard and enrolled as a scholarship student. Dolezal counted on the assumption many have expressed since her story went viral. Those million who asked—“why would she want to be black, if she is white?”
Rachel Dolezal’s journey from freckled faced daughter of white Montana parents to curly haired-bronzed woman, black president of the Spokane NAACP is something to talk about. But what I’ve been hearing during these past few days never rose above public chatter espousing polemics or pain. All that set against a backdrop of widespread misinformation.
I’ve eavesdropped as people insist that race is biological. It isn’t. It’s a social/cultural construct. Our species is human—that’s biological. Race is not. Some say Dolezal, as a white woman, could not be the president in the NAACP. Not true, there are many white people in the organization’s local and national leadership. Others strongly believe that Dolezal’s identifying as black was okay. On that one I agree with the online dissenter who wrote, “Saying I identify with unicorns, does not make me a unicorn.”
Then there’s the false comparison of Rachel Dolezal’s story to that of Caitlyn Jenner’s. Again, biology. Jenner was born in the wrong body. But Dolezal is bypassing biology to recreate herself. If race is fluid, then a woman, born black, should be able to re-identify herself-- as Dolezal did-- only by virtue of her close association with white people. Can you imagine millions making the case for her right to be white? I don’t think so. Note there ARE black women and men passing as white right now, but they MUST remain deeply in the closet to live that life."
Whether or not Dolezal accepts it, being a white American allows her advantages that the real black man she claims as father, and the real black son she identifies with, do not. Her manipulative parsing to protect her lie is offensive to the very group she wants to be a part of. She doesn’t get it, but I guess it really doesn’t matter now that she’s finalizing a book deal and shopping for a reality TV show. But take it from one African-American woman; Dolezal’s authenticity or lack thereof has nothing to do with her hair, and everything to do with who she really is---a fraud, and a liar whose racial sleight of hand is paying off big time."
