Melissa Harris-Perry on Rachel Dolezal: ‘It Is Possible That She Might Actually Be Black?’

Mediaite ^ | 6/13/15 | Josh Feldman

[markomalley]

If you’ve been following the Rachel Dolezal story online, you may have seen the word “transracial” being thrown around and people saying choosing to be black is like Caitlyn Jenner choosing to be female. It’s unclear how much of it’s sincere and how much is just straight-up trolling, but MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry entertained the notion on her show today with kind of a huge question.

“Is it possible that she might actually be black?”

While not wanting to make the transgender comparison, Harris-Perry questioned whether one can be “cisblack and transblack,” and whether there’s a way to describe “the achievement of blackness despite one’s parentage.”

Alyson Hobbs, who literally wrote the book on “racial passing,” said there’s “certainly a chance that she identifies as a black woman and there could be authenticity to that.”

Watch the video below, via MSNBC:

(video at link)

[nickcarraway]

Didn’t she say her parents were racists? Why would they adopt several black children if they were racist?

[Talisker]

Harris-Perry questioned whether one can be “cisblack and transblack,” and whether there’s a way to describe “the achievement of blackness despite one’s parentage.”

No.

[Dallas59]

Trans Am

[MD Expat in PA]

Like this I suspect:

The Elaine Dance

[Drew68]

So now I can achieve blackness? Do you need to collect something like Green Stamps or is it like a Navy qual card where you just get signatures for performing “black tasks”?

Thanks to the gains in acceptance made by the transgendered crowd, all you need to do is "self identify" as black and you're in the club. If that's all that's required to be a man or a women, why not black?

[elhombrelibre]

Surely, DNA can prove what her parents and photographic evidence shows. Ms Dolezal is a white woman. And as for Bruce Jenner, his chromosomes would show he is male.

When I was a boy, I thought at times I was going to be a professional baseball player and later an NBA basketball star. At some point, I realized it just wasn't going to happen. I don't pretend today to be a sports star. But using the logic of these people being duped, I could with just as much veracity and factual proof.

[rejoicing]

She gives new meaning to the word, IDIOT!!!

[miss marmelstein]

What is ‘cis’? As in sissy? Seriously, I see that but don’t get it.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

It is with a very, very low level of reluctance I admit I am highly entertained by this story.

[miss marmelstein]

Good! Teachers are what caused this problem in the first place. Let them put out the fire they started.

[GeronL]

lol

[miss marmelstein]

To help with the cotton crop?

[tje]

Said the woman with tampons in her ears.

[GeronL]

her bro is adopted

momma and daddy are Saltines

[Kickass Conservative]

How many People actually watch MSDNC Melissa anyway?

[9YearLurker]

I don’t know, but I can just picture Asian-American parents coaching their children now to adopt a transblack identity—so they have a chance to get into the colleges they deserve to be in. There could be a real blossoming of Asian hip-hop culture so they can “pass”.

[central_va]

She better have those finger nails with the gold decorations and such.

[Lurkinanloomin]

I am literally laughing out loud every time I see that picture. This is just too funny. It exposes the left on so many levels. She was an ethnic hairstylist and a professor of black studies in addition to being President of the Spokan, WA NAACP.

And she looked like that at ~10-12 ?!?!

[Steely Tom]

It is with a very, very low level of reluctance I admit I am highly entertained by this story.

Oh you made me laugh so hard with that.

[Exit148]

Well—those freckles on her skin, are dark!!