Black Civil Rights Activist Is Really White....

[Barbarella]

This is a weird one. There's this woman who's done a lot of great work for the Black community, but she did it by PRETENDING to be black when she's really a flaxen-tressed white person. She has disowned her white family and her parents are baffled at why their white daughter would go blackface and pretend to be black (even having her black adopted brothers live with her and pretend to be her sons).

http://www.buzzfeed.com/claudiakoerner/a-civil-rights-leader-has-disguised-herself-as-black-for-yea#.vnAApObQY

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/12/us/washington-spokane-naacp-rachel-dolezal-identity/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/12/rachel-dolezal-black_n_7573930.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/12/rachel-dolezal-parents_n_7571918.html

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/12/civil-rights-activist-rachel-dolezal-misrepresented-herself-as-black-claim-parents

http://heavy.com/news/2015/06/rachel-dolezal-transracial-naacp-spokane-president-black-white-family/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2015/06/12/the-damage-rachel-dolezal-has-done/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/06/12/what-rachel-dolezal-doesnt-understand-being-black-is-about-more-than-just-how-you-look/?tid=pm_opinions_pop_b

What really gets my goat is that wingnuts are gloating at the supposed chaos this is supposedly causing on the Left. I don't see how. This has happened before with guys like Ward Churchill or Iron Eyes Cody. The Left's still here.

I don't know what to make of this. I also had to examine myself because I was mad at this white woman for faking being black but understanding of an Italian named Espera Oscar de Corti pretending to be Cherokee-Cree. Perhaps I have some weird subconscious bigotry I have to address in myself.

What do you make of this? Should we be mad at her? Pity her? Not care? What about her parents who are clearly broken-hearted that she has rejected their very existence?

Since all humanity comes from Africa, should people pretending to be an ethnicity they are not (but greatly identify & sympathize with) be an issue. Should cultural/ethnic appropriation always be considered bad or it it not as...shall we say..."black & white"?

Or is Rachel Dolezal a weirdo who's doing more harm than good and is basically a big bonehead?

Very complex.

[Askold]

Meanwhile, some people are now saying that all transpeople are just as fakes as she is (because someone doing a blackface somehow means that all the science that proves that transpeople are real no longer counts.) And I've seen another person say that if she "really identified as a black person and wasn't just doing it for attention" then this is ok and no different from other trans issues.

In other words people are being stupider than usual.

Personally I don't think there is anything new in someone pretending to belong to a minority for personal gain (or pretend points in the "who is the most oppressed contest.)

[Barbarella]

Even if their intentions are good, people like this screw everything up and hinder more than help.

[Ultimate Paragon]

What pisses me off about this is that she kind of disowned her family for the sake of being black.  If your "race" is more important to you than your family, you have some major problems.

[Barbarella]

What pisses me off about this is that she kind of disowned her family for the sake of being black.  If your "race" is more important to you than your family, you have some major problems.

I know. What a weirdo. What's the deal?

[ironbite]

I've seen some people claim that since Caitlyn Jenner can be a woman despite being born a man, this woman can be black despite being born white.

Ironbite-and my brain strips a gear.

[MadCatTLX]

Ironbite, you forget most people aren't even aware that transgender and cross-dressing are different things.

The only thing I can think about this honestly is this:

[Second Coming of Madman]

At least she got the hair right.

[Dakota Bob]

What an amazing time to be alive, when shit like this hits the headlines and it's not from The Onion. I'm guessing she has some personality disorder.

[TheContrarian]

If you're going to try and erase this poor woman's transethnic identity you should put a trigger warning on this thread.

I got PTSD from reading the bigotry contained herein.

[Tolpuddle Martyr]

Angela Davis, who was a pretty famous black militant back in the 70s and is still pretty active today had this to say about this hot mess.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHEN251kTL4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHEN251kTL4</a>

This is weird...

Mic. Drop.

[Tolpuddle Martyr]

And, when she was a student she sued her historically black college for discrimination...

...against white people!

On the basis that she was a white person.

[mellenORL]

Just a minor correction: Michaela Angela Davis is cool in her own right, and offered great commentary in that clip with Anderson Cooper, but she is not the Angela Davis, who is 71. Michaela Angela Davis is 51. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaela_Angela_Davis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Davis

[mellenORL]

"If ya can't lick 'em, join 'em!" The right may end up embracing her as a brilliant mole.


ADDENDUM - Just avoiding a double post. Take a look and see how this TLC show of a news story is jumping the shark...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/16/rachel-dolezals-brother-author-joshua-dolezal-faces-trial-for-alleged-sexual-abuse-of-a-black-child/

[Ultimate Paragon]

Oh, it gets better.  She criticized The Help, accusing its author of being a white woman making money off the stories of black people.  The irony's so thick, I could cut it with a knife.