I will never become American enough to understand why everybody is so obsessed with Rachel Dolezal. To me, this is such a non-story. None of us can possibly know what’s in her DNA analysis. Anybody who’s ever seen a DNA analysis knows that drawing conclusions about people’s race or ethnicity is a waste of time. We all have a crazy amount of ancestry mixed in there.
And even if she does a DNA test and it is somehow deduced that she has no African ancestry at all, so what? What’s the big deal?
It seems like these vapid overblown scandals are growing in number. The recession must really be over if people are getting so overwrought about these trivial stories.
Clarissa's Blog 
Thank you and I totally agree! This non-story is infesting the UK media too. I don’t see the importance of it. She hasn’t defrauded anybody, the rest is between her and her family and associates. DNA testing probably can prove we all have African ancestry!
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I’m now even reading about this in Spanish media. At least, Ukrainians are not reporting on it. It’s like you need to be at war to avoid this story.
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I completely agree. Besides, the Dolezal non-story deflects from real fucked-up problems with race in the US.
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“Besides, the Dolezal non-story deflects from real fucked-up problems with race in the US.”
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It’s partly because of the timing with old man Bruce Jenner staving off age and death to be reborn as millenial girl Caitlyn – you can’t declare that one genetic boundary is easy to cross and others aren’t and I have the idea that a lot of people hadn’t given that reality much thought….
It’s also because of the unique nature of the African American community who straddle a particular variety of fences, partly racial and partly more like an ethnic/cultural/linguistic minority. Not all in the US with a majority of Sub-Saharan DNA really belong to it (Obama certainly didn’t until he joined the community as a young adult).
And the borders of membership in the AA community are porous in some areas and there have long been some who are de facto members of the group without the ‘right’genetics – but they haven’t pressed for leadership positions. The power issue sets some people off.
How would Jewish organizations feel about converts to Judaism (with no genetic connection to éthnic’jews) taking on leadership positions in Jewish organizations (or do they already?)
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“How would Jewish organizations feel about converts to Judaism (with no genetic connection to éthnic’jews) taking on leadership positions in Jewish organizations (or do they already?)”
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The racial angle and the compare/contrast with Bruce Jenner thing mentioned above made it perfect clickbait. Subsequently, as journalists started poking around, more and more weirdness kept turning up. E.g., the fact that back before she decided to be black she sued Howard University for discriminating against her for being white, bizarre sex abuse allegations in the family & etc.
It seems that she could keep the Lifetime channel busy for an entire season all by herself.
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Hah! I missed the bizarre sex abuse allegations but there is no doubt that there is a lot of dysfunction in that family.
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At the very least she lied and engaged in cultural appropriation to further her own career. Like, she didn’t decide to be black and go on to become a doctor or engineer. She decided to be black so that she could lecture others about the ‘black experience’ and make money out of it.
Let’s imagine that she decided to curl her hair and decide to be Jewish, claim she was the daughter of survivors of the Holocaust and then take up a leadership position within the Jewish community, going on speaking tours, talking about being the child of survivors. Imagine it turned out that 10 years ago she sued a Jewish organization for denying because ‘the jews always give jobs to their own people’.
Fuck this shit.
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“At the very least she lied and engaged in cultural appropriation to further her own career.”
“Imagine it turned out that 10 years ago she sued a Jewish organization for denying because ‘the jews always give jobs to their own people’.”
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“I have extreme rage against Jewish organizations who ban non-Jews from participating, so I’m not objective.”
I’m talking about making shit up about being a child of survivors and use that as an entry into leadership positions in the organization. I think it is profane.
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I’m unlikely to have much respect for organizations that employ people because they are somebody’s children. But it’s obviously not OK to lie to get a job or lie about being a victim of hate crime. The story’s hype is not living up to the extent of the lie, though, in my opinion. But again, I’m not American, I’m not as touchy about race.
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‘..denying her a job..’
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She decided to be black so that she could lecture others about the ‘black experience’ and make money out of it.
She made no money out of it. The position she resigned was a volunteer position without any compensation. Only national leadership positions of NAACP are paid.
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“The position she resigned was a volunteer position without any compensation.”
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“She also seems to be going through a huge rebellion against her parents and this masquerade was a very visible way of rejecting them.”
Oh yeah. And the parents have replied in kind. The whole story broke out when the parents told a news reporter that their daughter was white. That seems bizarre to me. I’m not a parent but I wouldn’t tell on my kid even if he murdered someone.
This seems like a family feud being played on a grander scale.
“Dolezal, who’s on a media blitz today, told Matt Lauer that back when she was still a five-year-old blonde white girl, “I was drawing self-portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon.”
Lol, no, say the parents. They were presumably still purchasing her crayons at that point, and none of them were brown, TMZ reports:”
Haha, imagine the pettiness required to refute this particular account of your daughter.
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Yeah. . . What chance did she have not to end up being very messed up?
Not that this removes any personal responsibility from her, of course. Many people come from horrible families but only some of them choose to address the damage by fake claims of being victims of crime.
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There is no genetic basis for race, yet race is a heavily policed social and cultural construct that has changed over time and will change again. I can provoke intense anxiety in people simply by refusing to answer, “What are you?” and “Where are you from” with my ethnicity. It bothers < a href=”https://books.google.com/books?id=f1OCh4wACWEC&lpg=PA1&dq=nikki%20haley&pg=PT21#v=onepage&q&f=false”>people (story starts at the bottom of the page)immensely.
America is deeply weird about race in its own special way.
As you know, Americans followed the
one drop rule which states if a person had any black ancestry at all, this person would be considered black during slavery and it applied for Jim Crow laws.
Combine that with a life story straight out of a Lifetime movie and a series of lies and everyone goes nuts.
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Sorry messed up the HTML.
<a href=”https://books.google.com/books?id=f1OCh4wACWEC&lpg=PA1&dq=nikki%20haley&pg=PT21#v=onepage&q&f=false>A story about a segregated pageant that demonstrates the policing of these boundaries(it starts at the last paragraph on the page).
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“There is no genetic basis for race, yet race is a heavily policed social and cultural construct that has changed over time and will change again.”
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And for people who are as obsessed with race as Americans, it can also be quite eye-opening. There was a story recently about the genetic makeup of racists from Louisiana and I’d like to see more such stories appear.
If by “eye opening” you mean provoke a freakout of epic proportions, then yes. I mean, plenty of people are cool the idea that their ancestors owned slaves, but not the idea that descendants of those slaves are related to them.
They’d rather claim some kind of Native American blood in a tiny amount than that.
I once had a coworker freak out on me because I mentioned the “out of Africa” theory and that everyone on earth is at least 42nd cousins to each other. She was babbling a story about racist uncle saying her children were related to chimps and [slurs] because of some rambunctious behavior.She related this story as if she should deserve some congratulations as to how non racist she was and how awful for her uncle to imply African ancestry. Only when I mentioned the “humans spontaneously evolved everywhere” theory, did her face turn back from red to a normal pink color.
I imagine she’s been in a nonstop freak out for seven years now.
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“I once had a coworker freak out on me because I mentioned the “out of Africa” theory and that everyone on earth is at least 42nd cousins to each other.”
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So she’s black when she’s the leader at NAACP. Is she black when she’s pulled over by a cop? Is she black when she’s filling up a loan application at the bank? What right does she have to co-opt other people’s misery to further her own ends?
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I would guess she is black to police or banks because she ‘passes’. She used to wear dreads and now has an afro and obviously must tan or something so I would say she does. If if she didn’t pass, by virtue of having black family she’s subject to prejudice.
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“The story’s hype is not living up to the extent of the lie, though, in my opinion.”
That’s a separate question and the answer to it is…I don’t know. Why did Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Walter Scott etc. turn out to be huge stories? I mean, we all know thousands of black americans are brutalized and killed every year by the police. We all know racism exists in this country. Why does one more killing make any difference? And yet it does.
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My first reaction was much like yours: race is a fiction and she really did seem to try to do good with her manufactured identity (working for the NAACP, bringing light to issues of racism etc.)….so who cares?
But then I sort of fell in to a rabbit hole reading about this and (for me at least), it’s the depth of the deception that’s sort of luridly fascinating: the profound changes to her appearance, the interviews in which she invents an entire persona, the claims of racism. It’s just strange to see someone lie so insistently and so coolly.
I ultimately do think this is a non issue. If she “feels” Black, then she should by all means claim that identity. If she wants to buttress this identity with fabricated childhood memories, that shouldn’t be anybody’s concern but her therapist’s. But the whole thing is interesting in this sort of gossip magazine/Lifetime movie way (as someone else mentioned above.)
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I would like the opposite of this situation happen sometime.
A black man being pulled over by a cop for no reason.
‘Officer, in case you didn’t know I identify as white so you can stop stomping on my face any time you’d like. Oh, you want proof I’m white? Here, let me kiss a dog in the mouth. You want more proof? Alright, I’ll say something now that no black person would ever dare to say to a cop for fear of being murdered. Officer, I’ll have you know my taxes pay for your salary! Can I have your badge number?
See, I’m white. Now leave me the fuck alone.’
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I think that would be brilliant!
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I don’t understand the part about kissing a dog, though.
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It’s a common joke among black people about white people loving their dogs.
http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2007/04/i-wish-i-was-white-persons-pet.html
https://www.google.com/search?q=white+people+kissing+dogs&safe=off&es_sm=122&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=C9GBVd6eJ4moogTs9IGYBA&ved=0CB4QsAQ&biw=1280&bih=598
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Ah! I’m with black people on this because I also find this absolutely disgusting. I had no idea this differed among racial communities in the US. It’s good to know.
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“You want more proof? I was just at a restaurant and left a 20% tip!”
(even well off blacks have a reputation for being terrible tippers, I have no idea if it’s true but it’s a well known meme).
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Cliffy boy being cliffy boy. Just can’t help yourself, can you?
‘How dare anyone makes fun of white people on the internet?! I shall restore balance to the universe. Hmm, what shall I say?
“You want more proof? I have a job.”
“You want more proof? I don’t like fried chicken or watermelon.”
Nah, let’s stick to tipping. It’s safer.’
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I still remember the happy times when these stereotypes meant absolutely nothing to me.
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Yes yes yes, Clarissa. After spending a couple of weeks in the US I became aware of these stereotypes, unfortunately.
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Is your point that because black people can’t choose to identify as white, Dolezal shouldn’t be allowed to identify as black?
It’s quite possible for black people to pass as white if they so choose. Skin bleaching, colored contacts, makeup, wigs, etc. So yes, the opposite can and does happen.
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I think it’s blowing up as others have mentioned because of the Caitlyn Jenner comparisons. ‘Feminists’ yet again get the opportunity to gleefully voice their disgusting ideas on gender and female brains. I saw a tweet that said ‘Caitlyn Jenner was always a woman, Dolezal has always been white and is just a liar’ or something to that effect.
I’m interested to see if, with the right rhetoric, ‘feminists’ will eventually get behind the idea of ‘transracials’. An idea of a racial identity that develops over time from experience and community membership is preposterous, but if I claim I was ‘born’ black and just loved eating fried chicken and rap music from birth, I bet they’ll support my transracial identity.
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“but if I claim I was ‘born’ black and just loved eating fried chicken and rap music from birth,”
It’s certainly illuminating to know what you think being black is all about.
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I read this post about Rachel and feel sorry for her now:
In order to understand more about Rachel’s parents and their motivations, we need to look at Rachel’s upbringing and her parents’ religious beliefs. And here we enter the world I grew up in, a tangle of conservative Christian homeschooling, religious child abuse, pro-life activism, and international adoption as a domestic mission field.
[…]
We have also heard testimonies from numerous homeschool alumni who grew up knowing the Dolezal family that frequent and significant child abuse occurred in the family. The parents allegedly forced both Rachel and her older, biological brother Joshua to beat their younger, adopted siblings with plumbing supply line and two foot long glue sticks, a practice inspired by Michael and Debi Pearl’s book, To Train Up a Child.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2015/06/lets-talk-about-rachel-dolezals-parents.html
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Oh god. Oh wow. This explains a lot. This poor woman.
I really really hope the conversation will now shift to child abuse and away from the entirely preposterous idea of “cultural appropriation.” I barely managed to get through the idiotic first paragraph of the linked article with its insane “cultural appropriation” whining.
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And I haven’t quoted the most important part:
Rachel’s adopted brother Izaiah Dolezal has himself raised public allegations against his parents involving physical punishment, forced labor, and isolation in out-of-state group homes. […] the court apparently found merit in the allegations, because they made Rachel Izaiah’s guardian when he was 16.
[…]
In 2013, a younger family member came to Rachel and told her that she had been sexually abused at the hands of Rachel’s biological brother Joshua in the early 2000s. It seems that Rachel believed this family member and has been supporting her through the legal process. The case goes to trial later this summer. […]
Did Rachel’s parents out her as white simply because they care about the truth? Or were they also motivated bya desire to discredit her so that they can, by association, discredit the victim she is supporting, and thereby protect their son from the sexual abuse charges that have been levied against him?
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2015/06/lets-talk-about-rachel-dolezals-parents.html
She says Rachel’s parents are “defending their adult son against accusations of child sexual abuse,” so the case is horrible and her lying seems to be the least important part of it.
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Now let’s see if anybody will care about this horrific story of abuse or if the public ‘ s attention will still remain stuck on the weave and the tan.
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Oh this makes so much more sense– especially since it seems like she became the guardian of the adopted brother who is Black. She wanted to distance herself from her horrible parents, feel closer to her adopted brother……this all adds up…………I actually do happen to think cultural appropriation is something to be concerned about. But I don’t think that’s what RD did. She radically identified with a new culture/race. That’s different than appropriating it.
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“She radically identified with a new culture/race.”
Was that before or after she sued Howard University for discriminating against her as a white woman?
Yeah, she’s clearly identifying with a new culture and totally not fetishizing it. Perish the thought.
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// Yeah, she’s clearly identifying with a new culture and totally not fetishizing it. Perish the thought.
May be, it’s because I don’t understand US realities, but I don’t see why “identifying with” and “fetishizing” are seen as incompatible.
She was raised by abusive and extremely racist parents too, so it’s not surprising if her motives for presenting herself as black were not 100% pure / good / healthy.
Also, if the men in the photo are black, aren’t they fetishizing some mythical African past too? It’s not like they or their relatives have ever lived in such kind of tribal society, so why is their painting themselves seen as ‘authentic’?
To prevent misunderstanding, I think that f.e. American Jews may fetishize Shtetl-life in Europe in the ‘good old days’ of pogroms, horrible ignorance (no secular education) and no women rights.
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“Also, if the men in the photo are black, aren’t they fetishizing some mythical African past too?”
This is like saying ‘if black people can say the word ‘nigger’ why can’t I?’ Don’t you worry about what black people can and cannot do.
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Oh she’s fetishsizing it for sure. But that doesn’t mean that she’s not identifying with it. I think that’s there is a part of her that deep down believes she black. And despite her questionable decision to sue Howard U, it seems like she did good work at the NAACP from what I can tell. I don’t think she’s a hero or anything. I just personally don’t think she really did anything wrong.
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“And despite her questionable decision to sue Howard U..”
This is like saying despite 9/11 Bush kept us safe. I dunno, to me that seems this totally shatters the myth that she’s radically attached to her black identity. And after all these lies, why do we give her a pass on anything she says?
And, not sure what good work she did at NAACP. She taught a few classes at a community college and her students remember her as an overbearing asshole. At one time she apparently excluded a Latina from some ethnography project because she ‘didn’t look Latin enough’.
Look, now that she’s out of her leadership position she can do whatever she wants, identify as whatever the fuck she wants.
I’ll repeat what I said earlier. My reaction would be the same if a non-jewish woman curled her hair, claim to be the daughter of survivors, use that to gain a leadership position at a Jewish organization, painted swastikas on her front door and report that to the police, establishing herself as a victim of anti-semetism (for more ‘street cred’?).
If she just claimed to be jewish and went about her life as a bank teller, or doctor, or engineer, she’d have my full support. You do your thing, baby!
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This is like a whole language onto itself that I don’t understand. Identifying, appropriating, fetishizing – none of this means anything to me. I’m obviously not trying to prevent anybody from discussing anything any way they want but I wonder where people acquire this language and why it passed me by.
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Not sure why my last comment is in the moderation line.
More on her good works. As chair of the committee monitoring Spokane PD she turned it into a shitshow. :
http://www.khq.com/story/29344766/investigation-finds-misconduct-among-three-ombudsman-commissioners-including-rachel-dolezal
Look, if people show you who they are, it’s a good idea to believe them.
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“Not sure why my last comment is in the moderation line.”
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The one stuck in moderation (Clarissa, fel free to delete that if this one goes through):
“And despite her questionable decision to sue Howard U..”
This is like saying despite 9/11 Bush kept us safe. I dunno, to me that seems this totally shatters the myth that she’s radically attached to her black identity. And after all these lies, why do we give her a pass on anything she says?
And, not sure what good work she did at NAACP. She taught a few classes at a community college and her students remember her as an overbearing asshole. At one time she apparently excluded a Latina from some ethnography project because she ‘didn’t look Latin enough’.
Look, now that she’s out of her leadership position she can do whatever she wants, identify as whatever the fuck she wants.
I’ll repeat what I said earlier. My reaction would be the same if a non-jewish woman curled her hair, claim to be the daughter of survivors, use that to gain a leadership position at a Jewish organization, painted swastikas on her front door and report that to the police, establishing herself as a victim of anti-semetism (for more ‘street cred’?).
If she just claimed to be jewish and went about her life as a bank teller, or doctor, or engineer, she’d have my full support. You do your thing, baby!
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The whole thing is really painful & the comments of people who are out for blood are not reassuring either. The woman comes from a completely messed up family of trashy abusers. Why are her useless parents and her almost convicted sexual abuser of a brother allowed to continue giving interviews with no one questioning their character or identity?
Get off your high horses and have some compassion. Everyone is so freaking philosophical and metaphorical – grow a heart instead.
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I agree with Sister. Now that her sad childhood has come out, we should give her a break and instead focus on condemning her abusive background and her horrendous parents.
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