*wigger"
Posted on 06/15/2015 8:16:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
In the countless articles and conversations about Rachel Dolezal, so many have wondered why ol’ girl would pretend to be black.
I can’t tell if they mean that question genuinely, like, “like who in their right mind would she put on this ruse for a decade?” Or is it self-depreciating like, “why would anyone in ther right mind want to be black, given the burdens of being such?”
I’m going to give the benefit and hope most folks mean the former, not the latter. And to answer that I’ve got a theory, that goes beyond, “um, duh. Because black women are inherently awesomene!”
My conclusion: Rachel Dolezal’s social capital goes even further as a light-skinned, blue-eyed black girl even than a white girl who’s down for the cause.
Stay with me.
In college, my bestie had a roommate, a white girl, who loved black guys and all things black culture. “Mary” was raised in a lilly-white cow town, somewhere way out in Maryland that despite growing up in Maryland, I’d never heard of.
And despite proclaiming a love for all things black, Mary didn’t really get black people, especially women.
One day she burst into my dorm room, without knocking and yelled, “where yo baby daddy?” There was a popular song at the time (1997) called “My baby daddy.” It was the first time I’d heard the term. But here was Mary, thinking that because she heard the new term in a song, it must mean all black people spoke this way.
She was that type of white girl.
More Vanilla Ice than Eminem if you understand the (important) distinction.
Uh, no. My roommate chastised her for not knocking, then added, “Hey, do you hear us talking like that?”
Her: No.
Roomie: Then don’t come in here talking that way. We’re in college. Speak like it.
Everytime me and bestie, a black girl, went down to Route 1, the local strip where (mostly white) college kids hung out, Mary declined. No interest. Every time we went to the popular black clubs in DC at the time— DC Live, VIP, The Bank or The Ritz— Mary was the first one dressed.
It was interesting partying with her. Mary wasn’t unattractive, but she wasn’t stunning. She was about average. And yet, black guys would clamor over each other and stumble over themselves to get her attention, spit game, and/or dance with her. Part of it is because of the stereotype about white girls being easy, treating oral sex as casually as a kiss, and having (daddy’s) money they freely spend to trick on their Black boyfriends. The other part of it is the surprisingly common belief that snagging “a white girl” is some kind trophy-worthy accomplishment.
So of course she liked partying with black folk. Her otherness made her exotic and her social capital and white privilege were magnified in a room full of color-struck black guys far moreso than in a room full of white boys. She was a unicorn instead of just another horse.
This is why I think Rachel Dolezal, another white girl from a cow-town, would be enamored with being around Black folk. Now why she would go the extra step to “pass” as a black woman?
A lot of Black folks still think “white is (closer to) right.” Blame it on slavery, if you wish. But the result is blue-eyed white girl Rachel? Meh. Dime a dozen. Blue-eyed black girl Rachel? Four leaf clover.
There are other factors at play here beyond aesthetics. Healthy doses of racism and the resulting unfavorable economics for black folk have resulted in a somewhat skewed versions of success when it comes for us vs. them.
Another story: I lived overseas once with five roommates. We were all sitting in the living room and one of them, the other black girl, began speaking to another (white) roommate who was also from Maryland. “I don’t get the obsession with PG County,” the black roommate said. “Like the black people there are so bourgeoisie.” (It was a dig. She knew I was from PG.)
Prince George’s County is one of the wealthiest and degreed black counties in the nation. It’s the east coast version of Los Angeles’ Ladera Heights (which Frank Ocean sings about in “Sweet Life”, calling it “the Black Beverly Hills.”). That said, it might be one of the richest black counties, but it’s only slightly above average in terms of money and degrees in comparison to the overall white counties in the state.
(Yet) another story: I used to work for Essence. When I’d meet a black woman of any age and say I worked there, she’d go “OMG! Essence?!” She was impressed. I’d tell a white person 30-50, the core age demo of the publication, she’d ask, “what’s Essence?”
I tell you this to make this point: White girl with a double degree? (Rachel hold a master’s from Howard University) Good for you. Black girl with a double degree? Among black people you’re deemed bourgeoise, a part of the New Talented Tenth, and you get on the radar of the Links.
Chris Rock made a joke about this set up, something like “Tom Hanks is an amazing actor, but Denzel Washington is a god to his people.”
As an educated, blue-eyed, mixed-race looking black woman operating in black spaces, Rachel Dolezal’s social capital extends the farthest. She’s held in higher esteem, gains greater access to influencers, even becoming one in her circle, perhaps she garners more sexual/marriage interest because of black folks and our collective colorism issues.
She becomes a big fish in lake as opposed to just another fish in the ocean.
Obama Marley?
he or she.....does bear a striking resemblance to Marley doesnt he...or she.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-27426329
World War One: Bob Marley’s father ‘neurotic and incontinent’
By Trystan Jones and Genevieve Tudor
BBC News
4 August 2014
Norval Sinclair Marley, born in the UK in 1885, was rarely talked about, even by those closest to his reggae star son.
Actress Esther Anderson, who became Bob Marley’s girlfriend in the 1970s, said: “The guy didn’t exist. There was a photograph of him on a horse, a white man on a horse.”
Bob himself rarely talked about his father, she said, and when he did it was in often scathing terms of the man who separated from his mother soon after his birth and died when Bob was just 10.
That her adopted siblings were African-American may have had something to do with it as well.
Bob and Obie apparently had a lot in common.
Songs of my father...
I don’t think the article is a revelation, the article hits it on the head. This lady, took advantage of the hip side of being black, educated and beautiful. What she avoids saying of course, is that this lady was probably sexually attracted to black men in the first place, and this ruse of hers just stuck it up another notch for her. I would wager that she’s been quite promiscuous and has had her share of STDs and probably an abortion or two.
There were two books fairly popular, and with movies when I was in college. The first was Black Like Me and the other Soul Sister. Both about white people who took the drug Psoralen which in the present of sun light turns your skin a golden brown, and then they went out into the streets to pass as black people. I tried it one Summer and I was as dark as a Dominican. I wasn’t trying to be black, and was never mistaken as being black, but I was thought to be Puerto Rican or from the Bahamas.
We have Elizabeth Warren out there taking advantage of being like 1/128th Indian if at all and another liberal this one taking advantage of her hair style and bronzing and appearing to be black. And so far not much outcry from the liberal community.
Yep, she nailed it. It went over the heads of Laura Ingraham and others last night. This lady was getting more attention than she could ever hope for being freckle faced and white from Spokane.
Nor do mixed-race individuals like Obama go out of their way to stress their white side. You'd think they would if being white was such a privilege in America.
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