Posted on 07/25/2022 8:42:13 AM PDT by Brookhaven
A reader writes:
A relative I haven’t spoken to in years is fraudulently applying to my department at a large university. To put it simply, this is a potential Rachael Dolezal situation. “Connie” is applying for a research and teaching position in my department. Her mother was married to my uncle for about 15 years and for 15 years I spent most weekends and every holiday and summer with Connie. We were quite close as kids.
For full clarity: Connie is white. She is not an immigrant, she is not adopted, and both of her parents come from white, American multi-generational wealth. There is not a hospital, museum, or major university in our city without her family name on at least one building. Her mother and my uncle got divorced quite a while ago, but our mothers are still very good friends. Connie and I lost touch as we grew up but reconnected on social media a few years ago.
When we were introduced in the interview, she pretended not to know me. During her team interview with me, two department chairs, and four other faculty, Connie spoke passionately about being a white-passing woman of color who has to confront racism daily, and how her past struggles with an impoverished upbringing as an immigrant in the U.S. have shaped her teaching values. I was speechless the entire time. Her resume is impressive, which makes me concerned she’s been lying to get certain grants/opportunities or that her resume is false.
The two department chairs were very impressed with her, a few people are neutral, and the rest seemed uncomfortable during the interview and passed on notes saying such. How do I approach this? I’m struggling with ethics vs optics: it’s unethical to put Connie forward as a voice for an underrepresented student population and an expert on certain racial and social justice movements and issues. My mentor (an older white male) told me to stay out of it because the optics are poor. I’m white, and I have had a privileged life that allows me to live comfortably on an academic salary. It would look like I’m attacking a candidate based on race in a predominantly white department. Regardless of optics, I would be complicit in this unethical situation if I didn’t say anything and she’s offered the job. So far nobody else has been invited to interview.
Let identify politics destroy itself.
Sorry kiddo. Connie can identify as anything she wants to identify as. The fact you cannot accept that is your problem, not hers.
Why do people get upset about such things when the “identify as” craze is going full tilt?
What, exactly, did they expect would happen when mental illness, rejection of reality, and ignoring objective truth became de rigeur, fashionable, and the ticket to advancement?
“Historically privileged” white person pretending to be “historically oppressed” black...evil.
“Historically privileged” man pretending to be “historically oppressed” woman...celebrated with parades and its very own month.
In junior high I knew a girl named Debbie who had some American Indian ‘blood’, but you would not know unless she told you.
Many people thought my mother was an American Indian, but she wasn’t never a member of an American Indian tribe and her parents were born in Western Asia.
Many Hispanics initially think I’m one of them, and it is quite likely that I would be genetically close to some light-skinned Mexicans due to the Muslim conquest of Spain.
“I pray for you to make the only possible correct choice.”
So which God to you pray to to justify the immorality of affirmative action?
This is the problem with taking a moral stand in support of something that is morally repugnant, and then pontificating on-high against someone lying about a lie.
There are no moral winners here. I would say ones prayer efforts are better spent on a higher level where both the people in the room attempting to enforce an immoral standard in interviewing someone who is lying to them are called to “make the only possible correct choice”
[First, I’m assuming that you know this is definitely the same Connie you grew up with]
“When we were introduced in the interview, she pretended not to know me.”
You’d better make damn sure you’re not having some kind of monumental brain fart. Then say something.
“The school can get in trouble for applying for minority grants using a fake minority.”
Harvard seems to have gotten along just find despite falling for the Elizabeth Warren Pocahantas scam.
“pulling a Liz Warren”
I believe Liz has Swedish origins which might include Lapp origins.
I would tend to agree.
Imagine when this comes out publicly
Does the department get shamed for hiring a white girl in a black position?
Does she intend to use it to embarrass them?
Is anything else on her resume false?
Any other possible explanation EXCEPT the truth creates potential problems.
The simplest solution is to tell them to write a letter thanking her for her application, but they’ve selected another candidate- Then call the cousin and tell her that they were onto the scam and she would be smart not to repeat the mistake.
Maybe that is how honor killings came to be.
If it were me I would vote “no” on the decision to hire, and keep my mouth shut.
That is what is called the “passive aggressive” approach to the problem.
I hate affirmative action, and would use any tools at my disposal to embarrass and humiliate anyone connected with it, either as a candidate or a hiring authority.
The “rule” is not fair, so I would refuse to play fair.
“a white-passing woman of color who has to confront racism daily”
That’s a good answer. Obviously the concern here is that the woman is a LIAR, it’s not the content of the lies she is telling. Although she is completely mis-representing herself and her entire family, so that’s quite a tall tale! Acting as though she doesn’t know her own cousin seems to indicate a level of real mental illness, they don’t want to hire this person and I agree the questioner has to say what he knows.
what?
It’s better to have colored privilege these days you don’t even have to be competent
She just doesn’t want to get the job because of her white privilege. So she pretending to be black to ensure that he isn’t hired just because of her race.
What an honorable thing to do.
““pulling a Liz Warren”
I believe Liz has Swedish origins which might include Lapp origins.”
What’s your point?
If you have a relative that has had an ancestry.com DNA analysis done, you might ask that relative if Connie has any justification for her claim.
As I remember reading, something like 96% of American blacks have some Caucasian ancestry.
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