If you can change your gender, can you change your 'race'? The case of Rachel Dolesal

[Stavros]

This story has been in the news in the last two days and begs the question, why do people think the word 'race' has any meaning? An American academic, Rachel Dolezal, has stated in public
"I actually don't like the term African-American. I prefer black, and I would say that if I was asked I would definitely say that yes I do consider myself to be black."
But she was born to 'white parents' -whom she has disowned- and seems uninterested in the distinctions that people make when referring to 'Black' and 'White' even though to most people these distinctions are obvious, not least when the Black person is lying dead on the ground and a White police officer is standing over him, or her.

Race as a concept is entirely bogus, but colour prejudice is not. One is a pseudo-philosophical waste of time, the other is a real mode of distinction with its own inherent problems- and possibilities.

I don't know if it is just some, or the majority of transexuals who would dispute the term 'changing gender' and say they are 'correcting' it. It may be possible to be a woman born in a man's body, but is it possible to be a Black person born in a white body?

And anyway, if we all originated from Africa doesn't that mean we are all Africans?

The quote above can be found here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11672742/I-consider-myself-black-says-white-woman-who-posed-as-an-African-American.html

[flabbybody]

I know parents get really pissed when their kids never call but for these people to have outed their own child out of hateful spite was very sad. For me that's the most interesting aspect of this weird story.
People can be such scumbags

[Bridgettaxo]

yes. it is possible because reincarnation is real and we know that it is real.. I actually think that this story is very interesting and even tho she lied and appears to have emotional issues it is important to the world to realize that the body and the soul are actually not the same.

[fred41]

You can identify with a culture but it doesn't change your DNA...yes, race doesn't really matter...unless you lie about it to receive a special privilege. In that case you're just a con artist.

[MrFanti]

Forget it (my original post)
...I plan to enjoy the weekend!

[fred41]

BTW...the woman in question seems to be a pathological liar who fabricated not only her background, but nonexisting crimes committed against her. I fail to see any type of discussion to be had here.

[NRT]

it was discussed on Newsnight on BBC and also CNN. The latter show's panellists believed she may have some kind of mental disorder to go over the top and pretend she is something she is not. She lied in the job selection, tanned her skin used make up and of course black hair extentions and braids. She was giving advice on the recent controversial police shootings, saying whites should not take a lead in the campaigns, it should be left to blacks because they know what it is like. She commented on the film 'Ten years a slave' telling black viewers to sit at the back rows away from the whites watching who would be looking at them to see 'black reaction' etc to get over thier guilt complex etc. She had strong views on black hair and why wearing it natural is important culturally and politically etc. The panellists said she had made valid points but she could still have made them as a white woman, and it may make others from the wider 'white community' to wise up and see things the way she explained. I recall Malcolm X famously say (sic) 'the place for whites who support us, is not with the black victims, but organising against the demagogues and those seeking to maintain the status quo in their own community'

My only quiery is how did she fool so many blacks that she was black? Didnt anyone notice but didnt say? or were not believed? I recall Spike Lee saying the controversial film 'Soul Man' was patronising because it assumed blacks would not be able to tell the main character played by C. Thomas Howell was a white guy in modern day blackface make up.

[templek]

Is she the 'Lance Armstrong' of race, diversity equality campaigning?

Maybe she was trying to recreate what John Howard Griffin did in his groundbreaking book
'Black like me' 1961

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Like_Me

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/black-like-me-50-years-later-74543463/?no-ist

Then again her hero could be of course Alex Haley:

http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2013/01/21/alex-haley-lance-armstrong-of-literature/

[Bridgettaxo]

it is being realized that her black adopted sibings as well as her were the subject of much abuse from her parents.. it could explain alot.. also.. it is showing the world that culture is for the most part just DRAG!. ultimatley we are all one people. it seems that lesson is coming at humanity now and it is time that it is received..

[MrFanti]

BTW...the woman in question seems to be a pathological liar who fabricated not only her background, but nonexisting crimes committed against her. I fail to see any type of discussion to be had here.

Exactly!
Which is why I have no issues with what her parents did.

[flabbybody]

what's the crime here? A person created a false persona to gain an edge. people fib about education and experience on resumes every day. We have a government that excuses murder in exchange for testimony. Besides the parents being gutless rats I don't see the big deal

[fred41]

what's the crime here? A person created a false persona to gain an edge. people fib about education and experience on resumes every day. We have a government that excuses murder in exchange for testimony. Besides the parents being gutless rats I don't see the big deal

Why are the parents 'gutless rats'?!
Apparently she alienated herself from them, even posting a picture of herself with an unrelated older gentleman who was black and insinuating he was her father...are you kidding me?
What were they supposed to do when contacted?...Say that their daughter wasn't their daughter? What's wrong with you?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3121061/Local-NAACP-leader-professor-African-studies-outed-WHITE-parents-convincing-community-black-years.html

[buttslinger]

I'm not going to overthink this one, I just got blasted for being racist down in the politics section.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4ejPdItsUQ

[SanDiegoPervySage]

I don't see her as black.

[islandmix]

Lol look at them whites still tryna take black people swag they so ashamed they cant stand to be white.

[sassygirl]

If the NAACP fires her they are Rascist .

[NRT]

If the NAACP fires her they are Rascist .

someone should be fired if she was hired under false pretences and they could not tell and so easily fooled. This is biggest scandal to hit that organisation since the Benjamin Chavis scandal, he is now Benjamin Muhammad senior team member in Farrakhan's the Nation of Islam.

strange how a lot of blacks who have made it dont want to be seen as 'black': Tiger Woods calls himself 'cablinasian', Michael Jackson and OJ Simpson before thier court battles, Prince, etc. Maybe she took those 'white privalege' lectures by that college professor too seriously

NAACP lobbied for the Washington Redskins to change its name because Redskins was offensive to Native Americans and the team was mainly black. However people criticised the NAACP for the use of the word colored in its name which is also an insensitive term, which led some blacks to refer to the NAACP:
'N*****s aint always coloured people'

[NRT]

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/ultimate-exercise-in-white-privilege-cnn-panel-piles-on-rachel-dolezal/

[templek]

so she is fully white with no black in her? I suppose her black boyfriends (Im assuming she only dates black) would have something to say about that. boom boom sorry for dropping in the obvious silly joke

[dreamon]

what's the crime here? A person created a false persona to gain an edge. people fib about education and experience on resumes every day. We have a government that excuses murder in exchange for testimony. Besides the parents being gutless rats I don't see the big deal

You don't have a problem with her filing false police reports?

[jamesedwards]

First off there is no such thing as a black person, we are not crayons, and there is no such thing as a white person. This is all status to identify to a classification. if she knew the history of Caucasians coming to this country she would know they weren't called white, they were called Christians. Africans were called Africans, and by their tribal name not black. I don't want to be called black and I check people real quick. I am African descent. The darkest person on this planet is not black, and complexion ranges from Dark to Light not different colors. smh.

That term black if she would look it up in the dictionary she would see it's derogatory! So she can ignorantly keep calling herself black which she is not all she want to.

[SanDiegoPervySage]

If the NAACP fires her they are Rascist .

Oh hell

[Laphroaig]

I caught a bit of the Newsnight discussion before I'd heard anything else about it. All this case seems to prove is that ignorance and stupidity know no boundaries, racial, cultural or otherwise.

As Fred41 says earlier, the woman's a liar, end of debate.

[MrFanti]

Outside of her being a pathological liar, now there's this:


Woman at center of NAACP case sued university in 2002, said it favored black students

...The former NAACP leader accused of being a white woman pretending to be black once sued a historically black university for racial discrimination, claiming Howard University favored black students over her, according to court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/woman-at-center-of-naacp-case-sued-university-in-2002-said-it-favored-black-students/ar-BBlbKIA?ocid=HPCDHP

As a Black person myself, I don't blame her parents one bit.....

[RallyCola]

ashton kutcher must be jealous. this chick punk'd the NAACP.

[javier81]

what's the crime here? A person created a false persona to gain an edge. people fib about education and experience on resumes every day. We have a government that excuses murder in exchange for testimony. Besides the parents being gutless rats I don't see the big deal

Lmao. You seem to be quite misguided. Should she still be allowed to teach her course entitled "Black women's struggles in America"?

[natina]

That means MIMI PLASTIC is WHITE!



This story has been in the news in the last two days and begs the question, why do people think the word 'race' has any meaning? An American academic, Rachel Dolezal, has stated in public
"I actually don't like the term African-American. I prefer black, and I would say that if I was asked I would definitely say that yes I do consider myself to be black."
But she was born to 'white parents' -whom she has disowned- and seems uninterested in the distinctions that people make when referring to 'Black' and 'White' even though to most people these distinctions are obvious, not least when the Black person is lying dead on the ground and a White police officer is standing over him, or her.

Race as a concept is entirely bogus, but colour prejudice is not. One is a pseudo-philosophical waste of time, the other is a real mode of distinction with its own inherent problems- and possibilities.

I don't know if it is just some, or the majority of transexuals who would dispute the term 'changing gender' and say they are 'correcting' it. It may be possible to be a woman born in a man's body, but is it possible to be a Black person born in a white body?

And anyway, if we all originated from Africa doesn't that mean we are all Africans?

The quote above can be found here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11672742/I-consider-myself-black-says-white-woman-who-posed-as-an-African-American.html

[buttslinger]

My first thought is that she reminded me of Sabrina Le Beauf, one of the affluent Cosby kids. (see below)
I like it when I see white kids marching with blacks for human rights, and I like that a boy can be a girl if only she wishes hard enough.
She probably put black on her resume because she thought the NAACP wouldn't let her in if she marked white. Should a Country Club not allow blacks if their name is NAAWP?
This is what you call a can of worms. That's why the media is all over it.

The NAACP is a bit dated,anyway... colored people? Wazzup with that, homeboy?

[javier81]

Wut?