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You're What You Say You Are
Townhall.com ^ | June 24, 2015 | Walter E. Williams

Posted on 06/24/2015 7:11:37 AM PDT by Kaslin

Rachel A. Dolezal, the recently resigned president of the Spokane, Washington, office of the NAACP, has come under a bit of controversy. Both of her parents are white, but for eight years, Dolezal claimed that she was black. In addition to her role as president of an NAACP chapter, Dolezal was an instructor of Africana studies at Eastern Washington University.

Some critics claim that Rachel Dolezal's actions were motivated by greed and narcissism. By becoming a black person, she could more easily become an NAACP leader, chair a police watchdog committee and get a teaching appointment.

Dolezal is not the only white woman who has benefited from racial fakery. Sen. Elizabeth Warren claimed that she was of Cherokee Indian ancestry. That helped her land a job at diversity-hungry Harvard University as a professor of law. Not only was her great-grandfather not a Cherokee as she claimed but also he was a white man who boasted of shooting a Cherokee Indian.

Personally, I don't hold either Dolezal or Warren at fault for racial fakery. If you read my autobiography, "Up From the Projects," you will see that I had the occasion to fake my race. It was 1960, during my troubled time in the U.S. Army, when I had just landed from a troop carrier in Incheon, South Korea. Upon disembarkation, soldiers were required to fill out a vital information form denoting one's next of kin, religion, blood type and race, among other things. Where it asked for race, I checked off "Caucasian." The chief warrant officer, in charge of inspecting the forms, told me that I had made an error by checking off "Caucasian." I told him that I hadn't and was in fact Caucasian. After a couple of minutes or so of going back and forth, he asked me why I would put down "Caucasian." I told him that if I put down "Negro" -- what we called ourselves at that time -- I'd be given the worst job. I never changed the form, but the officer probably did.

By the way, faking one's race is not uncommon. There was a 1947 study by E.W. Eckard -- "How Many Negroes 'Pass'?" -- which estimated that 2,600 Negroes had become white, or passed, each year during the 1930s (http://tinyurl.com/pqhfzh8).

The bottom line is that modernity permits liberties previously unknown or unrecognized. Today we're not held to reality. For example, one does not have to accept the limitations of biology. Say that one is born with XX sex chromosomes and is therefore female or that one is born with XY sex chromosomes and is therefore male. One doesn't have to accept nature's determination. An XXer can say that he's a male. Or an XYer can say he's a she. One's sex is seen as optional. Moreover, if a male claims to be a female, others are expected to acknowledge that. For example, Bruce Jenner, Olympic decathlon champion and reality show personality, has recently become Caitlyn Jenner. People now are required to address him as her.

There is a condition known as species dysphoria, similar to gender dysphoria. It is a condition in which people think they are animals trapped in human bodies. I've been giving this option some serious thought. I've been thinking of calling myself a springbok trapped in a human body. Some people might argue that I would be in need of psychological treatment. I'd dismiss such a claim as being animalphobic. You might ask, "Williams, why in the world would you want to call yourself a springbok?" I would be doing it for personal gain, just as Rachel Dolezal and Elizabeth Warren benefited by pretending they were of another race. I'd be doing it for tax reasons. I've read a considerable amount of the Internal Revenue Code. It says nothing about wild animals having a federal tax obligation. Were government officials to demand that I, as a springbok, pay taxes, I'd report them to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: modernity; race; racegender; racheldolezal; transracionalism
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1 posted on 06/24/2015 7:11:37 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

I’m the King of Sweden.

And my son is the Tsar of all the Russias.


2 posted on 06/24/2015 7:15:14 AM PDT by WayneS (Don't blow smoke up my ass and tell me it's raining...)
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To: Kaslin

Luckily, I’m rich, better looking than Brad Pitt, and really satisfy the ladies.


3 posted on 06/24/2015 7:16:50 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie
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To: Kaslin

I would say if the premise is true, we can all apply for welfare and scholarships and getting those race and gender-based promotions post-haste.

And also sue for retroactive losses from past denials of said promotions and benefits, the courts will love this.


4 posted on 06/24/2015 7:17:36 AM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Kaslin

I self-identify as a (generic) former president of the United States. As such, I demand 24-hours-a-day Secret Service protection. Oh, and a chauffeur-driven limousine would be nice too.


5 posted on 06/24/2015 7:18:43 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: Kaslin

“I feel like a US citizen. Give me benefits.”


6 posted on 06/24/2015 7:20:53 AM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: Kaslin
The phrase "you're what you say you are" is from Street Life, a song by The Crusaders, which was on their album Street Life, released in 1979.
7 posted on 06/24/2015 7:23:41 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP: A Slower Handbasket)
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To: Pearls Before Swine

i’ve yet to realize my divinity yet, somehow, what a shabby little god i am, look around at my “creation”.


8 posted on 06/24/2015 7:25:58 AM PDT by CharlesOConnell (CharlesOConnell)
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To: WayneS
I’m the King of Sweden.

This is the King of Sweden:

Seriously!

9 posted on 06/24/2015 7:31:58 AM PDT by null and void (I wish we lived in less interesting times, but at least we have front-row seats.)
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To: null and void

Exactly.

Now prove that’s not me!

;-)


10 posted on 06/24/2015 7:33:42 AM PDT by WayneS (Don't blow smoke up my ass and tell me it's raining...)
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To: WayneS

I am King David.


11 posted on 06/24/2015 7:34:36 AM PDT by exnavy (socialism and communism are indistinguishable.)
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To: WayneS
TOUCHÉ!
12 posted on 06/24/2015 7:34:39 AM PDT by null and void (I wish we lived in less interesting times, but at least we have front-row seats.)
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To: Uncle Miltie

you too?


13 posted on 06/24/2015 7:36:24 AM PDT by brivette
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To: Kaslin

I remember back when a Kenyan claimed to be Hawaiian and became POTUS.


14 posted on 06/24/2015 7:37:27 AM PDT by GregoTX (Remember the Alamo)
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

This thread has your name all over it...


15 posted on 06/24/2015 7:43:59 AM PDT by null and void (I wish we lived in less interesting times, but at least we have front-row seats.)
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To: null and void

Is that Minnie the Mocher on His Majesty’s right?


16 posted on 06/24/2015 7:49:18 AM PDT by hanamizu
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To: WayneS
I am:

His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Patriot1876, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular

17 posted on 06/24/2015 7:53:36 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876
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To: Uncle Miltie

You too?


18 posted on 06/24/2015 7:53:50 AM PDT by RipSawyer (Racism is racism, regardless of the race of the racist.)
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To: Kaslin
Were government officials to demand that I, as a springbok, pay taxes...

I wish you hadn't given them the idea.

19 posted on 06/24/2015 7:54:11 AM PDT by immadashell (The inmates are running the asylum.)
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To: Kaslin

shoving a few feathers up your butt doens’t make you a chicken and neither does any of this other crap


20 posted on 06/24/2015 7:54:28 AM PDT by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
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