You all know why we’re here.
This video is going to be about
Rachel Dolezal, the president of the
NAACP’s
Spokane, Washington chapter, and a white woman who has been ‘passing’ for
Black for at least the last six years.
Becoming enamored with
Black culture after her (white) parents adopted
Black children, she garnered multiple degrees in
African-American studies before moving to Spokane, Washington.
A virtual unknown in
Spokane, Dolezal set about reinventing herself as a
Black woman, darkening her skin, changing her hair, and self-identifying as Black. She also created an elaborate backstory about her family and upbringing, which included allegations of abuse against her parents so no one would dig too deeply into her family, past, or home life.
Dolezal used her faux
Blackness as a way to break into activism and politics, teaching classes on
African-American Studies; in addition to teaching, she eventually worked her way up to
President of the NAACP chapter. Many, however, suspected something was off, especially when Dolezal was the recipient of several untraceable ‘hate’ packages. Believing she had possibly sent them to herself and that she was not actually Black, a local newspaper contacted her biological family, who revealed the truth: she had been born a
Caucasian woman.
This woman is clearly disturbed.
I am not of the mindset that '
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,’ and anyone that has taken a basic ‘Racism
101' class should understand cultural appropriation and why it's problematic. There has also been some really annoying chatter about how if ‘
Black women are allowed to try to be white, then white women should be allowed to try to be Black.’ This is a false equivalence that does not take into account how Black women grow up in a white supremacist society that pushes Eurocentric beauty ideals. We don't literally want to be white; we have just been conditioned to think whiteness is beautiful. This woman literally wanted to be Black.
She has been occupying
Black female spaces while in blackface, and she was utilizing and appropriating Black culture and experiences in order to further her career and occupy Black revolutionary spaces. There is a perversion to that. Although she has accomplished much in the
Black community, it is viciously undercut by the fact that she did it not as herself, but as a white woman in blackface.
There have been white NAACP leaders in the past; there have even been militant pro-black white allies like
John Brown.
Everything she accomplished could have been accomplished without pretending to be Black. She just wanted to be Black SO
BAD that she created this false racial identity (based off of caricatures) and committed to it.
As much as she knows about *being black* aka
Black stereotypes, as much as she has educated herself on Black struggle or Black culture, as much as she has done for the Black community, she is not Black and will never be Black. She always has the option of going home, washing that lacquer off her skin, taking off that weave, and picking up her whiteness again if she feels like it. That is a crucial distinction to make, and one that proves the inherent issue with ‘ethnicity identity;’ similar to cultural appropriation, it is always in the favor of the dominant ethnicity.
It’s not about saying, 'Well, why can't we just be whatever we want?’ because this mindset is not even POSSIBLE without a certain amount of privilege. As we saw McKinney, whiteness is invisible. But to
Black people and other
POC, race is not some abstract concept, it is a solid marker of our identities. Black people never get to stop being Black. We NEVER get to say, 'You know what, I choose to ethnically identify as white today, so cops please stop profiling/harassing/killing me.'
Black people
DON'T get to identify ourselves and live the lives we choose.
We are constantly trying to navigate in hostile, oppressive spaces under white supremacy, and white people CONSTANTLY think they can cherry pick the *fun* parts of a Black racial/ethnic identity without having to deal with any of that pesky racism and oppression. We don't have that luxury. We don't have that PRIVILEGE. We're Black through the the good and the bad, and we can't pick an 'ethnic identity.' We were born Black into a society and a world, really, that sees Blackness as an issue, and we can't just choose to ethnically identify as something else and opt out of systemic oppression and racism.
Thanks for watching.
- published: 12 Jun 2015
- views: 26647