What's wrong with Rachel Dolezal

[karadinart]

What’s wrong with Rachel Dolezal? You can be an ally, we need all the allies we can get, but when you make a living and gain a reputation speaking about a lifetime of oppression you never faced, it’s at best false advertising, and at worst, objectifying an entire group of people, it’s cool to be black, mainstream culture appropriates the elements of blackness constantly. She can ‘identify’ all she wants, because to her it’s a choice, other people never get the choice, what they want is not a lifestyle, it’s equality and taking on that struggle without facing up to your origins is disgusting.

You know just a few years before her morphing she sued Howard University for discrimination as a white woman, I call bullshit on her ‘wanting to be black since she was 5′ she’s gaming the system, and she’s not a person worthy of defending in the cause of breaking down barriers.

Comments

[earthspirits.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you - this woman is deeply offensive, and personally I feel she's just been milking the system for her own gain. She could have been very helpful to the NAACP and other groups fighting for equality, had she done if honestly as her true self, and without all of the subterfuge.

That's interesting (and alarming) that she sued Howard - hadn't heard that one before, but sounds like her modus operandi.

She's getting way too much attention too (which is probably what she wants, on some level).

[karadin.livejournal.com]

I will never understand why people are coming out to say 'it's okay that she lied' when the lie is she was oppressed, she was never oppressed, she's an opportunist.

[kinkthatwinked.livejournal.com]

In my experience, whenever a black person did drastic things to alter their appearance to make themselves appear more white, it was seen as (1) the result of overexposure to European culture and Caucasian standards of beauty, to the point where it could be called brainwashing (2) a lack of self esteem, an indication of self loathing, and a dearth of reaffirming words and images about black culture and African physical features, and (3) in extreme cases like Michael Jackson and his amazingly evenly distributed vitiligo condition, a clear cry for professional help. In short, it was seen as proof that something was wrong.

But, oh, when a white person does it, it's an identity, like being gay, and having the nerve to darken one's skin, make one's hair kinky, and do everything but sing "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud" to pass as black is now the exact equivalent of what transgendered people who embrace their true selves suffer every day. Um, WHAT?!

BTW, I've learned that "transracial" was a term coined to describe children of one race who are adopted by parents of another race, and raised in the parents' culture. Think "Diff'rent Strokes" or "Webster." Think of the kids Angelina Jolie adopted, or Sandra Bullock's son. Those are people who could identify as transracial someday, if they choose to.

But this bitch? Hell no, she's just a con artist who got caught, and maybe she does need help like Michael Jackson did, but does that excuse her behavior? Again, hell no.

The killing thing is, she could have been a wonderful ally as a white woman, and accomplished pretty much everything she's already done. I believe we are all "in the struggle," as racism impacts all of us. She didn't have to put on blackface to fight with us.

And do you see something fetishizing or objectifying in her obsession with black people, because I don't think it can be described merely as admiration at this point?

[karadin.livejournal.com]

well, I think that she is objectifying in the sense that she wants to be black, and that the appearance of being black, to the point of claiming someone else was her father, is what she focused on. If she appreciated culture, and the struggle, would she have to pretend?

When people asked her if she was African American, she could say 'I identify as black' and add 'but I wasn't born that way' - but then that would break the illusion, and point out the lie that she'd been lecturing for years on being oppressed as a black person.

And I also think that minorities would try 'passing' as white for simple survival, if they could, I mean who wants discrimination if they can avoid it, it's why I was sorry as a kid I couldn't be a boy, not because I hated being female.