Dear Rachel: Here’s What I Wrote After I Got Mad Watching Your Interview

The Root ^ | June 16 2015 | HILARY BEARD

[nickcarraway]

The author shares a real black American experience to counter the made-up “black experience” that race pretender

It’s really not that “complicated,” #RachelDolezal. Because, no, you didn’t “go there with the experience”; no, you’re not a black hairdresser; no, you didn’t have to play black to be your black children’s mom; and no, this discussion about race and what it means to be black—while rich and important and long overdue—hasn’t occurred “at your expense.” But other people will let you have it for those transgressions. I’ll just share my personal experience because I think, just by laying it out, that you’ll see the problem.

Consider this an ode to my mother, who was often—perhaps usually—seen as white. She was descended from many generations of mixed-race people: African (of unknown origin), Cherokee, Choctaw, Irish, Portuguese, Scottish and Lord knows what else. Mommy’s eyes were forest green, with gold specks, and sparkled. Whether snatched up into a bun or braided and falling down her back, her hair looked straight, except on a humid day. In some communities she could have passed for white, although black folks knew the deal.

And truth be told, for several years I, Hilary, her eldest child, believed that she was, in fact, white. Her face hit the floor when she heard me tell one of my white girlfriends, Julie—who was shocked that a woman whom she saw as having white skin was my mom—that she was “white and Indian.” It hadn’t occurred to my mom, having lived her entire life under the one-drop rule, that she was anything but colored (which gave way to Negro and then black and African American), or that she would have to explain her racial identity to her very own biological child. She was just stunned, and I, her firstborn, felt very ashamed.

[Sicon]

this discussion about race and what it means to be black—while rich and important and long overdue...

Um, no, it isn't "rich", or "important", or "long overdue".

It is tedious, it is counterproductive, and it has been entirely beaten to death already.

Here's an idea: why don't we talk about personal responsibility, self-reliance, and the diminution of government in EVERYONE'S lives?

[bigbob]

“Hillary Beard”...might want to consider a pseudonym.

[MeshugeMikey]

personal responsibility, self-reliance, and the diminution of government in EVERYONE’S lives?

the problem is ....the utter dumbing down of everyone who’s sole education comes from gument schools...and TV!!

make believe rules the “minds” and “lives” of a vast number of Americans

[Stosh]

I think she’s got one already: “Huma Abedin”