Posted on 06/17/2015 5:01:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
This week, Rachel Dolezal, the former local head of the Spokane NAACP, a lecturer in Africana studies at Eastern Washington University, and a proud black woman, was revealed to be a non-proud white woman. She lied about her personal history: She said her parents whipped her when they lived in South Africa, that she underwent rape and physical abuse, that the KKK targeted her with swastikas and nooses. No evidence exists to support any of this. Her parents point out that Dolezal has no black ancestry, and grew up in a Montana home as the child of two white parents.
Nonetheless, Dolezal insists she is black. "I was drawing self-portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon, and black curly hair," she said to Today. "It's a little more complex than me identifying as black or answering a question of, are you black or white?"
Just two weeks ago, the world went gaga over Bruce Jenner's transformation into Caitlyn Jenner; the left passionately insisted that Jenner's genetics, hormones and penis did not mean he could not be a woman. The president of the United States felt the need to tweet out his support for Jenner, stating, "It takes courage to share your story." Anyone who abided by the antiquated notion that biological sex exists was treated as a Neanderthal holdover.
Now, however, the left insists that Rachel Dolezal is not black. On June 9, The Daily Beast headlined, "Caitlyn Jenner Is Pissing Off Feminists and Bigots -- Good for Her." Three days later, The Daily Beast headlined, "BREAKING: NAACP 'Stands Behind' Fake Black Woman." The left insists on preserving non-biological, illegitimate racial barriers because they exploit those racial barriers for political gain; the left insists on destroying biologically based sexual differences because they wish to overthrow all established sexual mores.
So what distinguishes Jenner from Dolezal? On what basis can we reject Dolezal's blackness, given that the left has now redefined objective reality as self-definition? If you want to be a woman, you are a woman. If you want to be black, why can't you be black?
Nick Gillespie of Reason magazine makes the odd argument that Jenner had transformed into a woman because Jenner sincerely believes that he has transformed into a woman, whereas Dolezal had fraudulently lied about her race for gain. Now that Dolezal has averred her sincerity, presumably she is black.
Or perhaps there is some objective measure of race? But that, too, fails on the merits: Sex is significantly more biological than race, and it is significantly more significant than race. Skin color is surely biological, but the relevance of race is purely sociological, as even those on the left acknowledge. As Ian Haney Lopez of U.C. Berkeley writes, biology "refutes the supposition that racial divisions reflect fundamental genetic differences." Black people have black skin, but how black must your skin be for you to be legitimately black? In the Old South, one drop of black blood made you black, and therefore fit for discrimination. But that was a racist societal distinction, not a biologically based one. As Rachel Dolezal puts it, if you go far back enough, "we're all from the African continent."
Perhaps race is a societal construct and can change, but society must uphold racial differences for some greater goal? But that would be pure racism: The goal of fighting racism would be to alleviate racial distinctions, which have no behavioral basis, despite the musings of the would-be comedians at #AskRachelDolezal.
And so we come to this inescapable conclusion: By the left's standards, Rachel Dolezal is black. She can choose her race, just as Bruce Jenner can choose his sex. And she didn't choose. She always felt that way. After all, no one would choose to be black, just as no one would choose to be gay -- blacks are so put upon in American society that no one would fake being black for, say, the benefits of employment or mainstream leftist celebration.
Perhaps we can all learn from Rachel Dolezal: Race doesn't matter. Except that it does for people like Rachel Dolezal, which is why she went black. Rachel Dolezal is a poster child for the deconstructionist, victim-manufacturing left. But now she's learning: Once you go black, the left will make you go back.
They don’t “hope” for any profit from this beyond the hope that their daughter gets the psychological help she so desperately needs. Some reporter deduced the obvious (obvious to all but liberals apparently) and asked her parents what’s up? The parents simply refused to perpetuate the lie.
Good for them.
If they can't be the ones who decide who is black and who is not, then they will not be able to bully/cajole/hoodwink even the most spineless congress and sympathetic president to adopt a reparation plan.
By this same logic isn’t what used to be called an “illegal alien” (new PC term is now “unauthorized immigrant”) really just a “transnational.”
“Yes, I am from (fill in the blank) and I have not followed the regular process for taking up residence or working in your country. Those are just inconsequential minor facts. The most important factor is that I self-identify as a resident/citizen of your country. So give me my rights and privileges now and we will sort out the irregularities later.”
You Are NOT!
I Am Napoleon!
Everybody knows it too..
Ask Anyone...
Because it shows that being black has advantages and black is a privileged class. Not the other way around.
It is so good. Keep it in the news.
She’s a liar and a fraud...perfect fit in the NAACP!!!
We have been looking for a form of civil disobedience to combat the lunacy of the Left.
It has been dropped in our laps.
We’re ALL black now, because we want to be. I will forever more identify myself on any form I fill out from now on.
I suggest you do the same. But only if you self-identify as a black person, like me.
Hi! I’m “Anyone”...yes fiddlestix is Napolean! My friend “Everybody”, also knows it!
Napolean how’s that rash on your hand you keep hiding in your coat?
Getting better...
But...
I'll have to wait a few more years for hydrocortisone cream to be invented....
Then it will be cured once and for all....
BTW, thanks for asking...
Your concern for my health is duly noted...
Perhaps the parents are partially to blame but I blame Raquel far more than I do her parents. I have seen lots of biological children who didn't go off the rails when adopted children entered the home. Wasn't Rachel pretty normal until she left home and then went nuts?
The parents then out her. I guess her success didnt make them happy. What do they hope to gain from this? A book deal? A few trips to New York.
Maybe they want to get some help for their daughter and end this fantasy. It must be painful for parents to watch their daughter living out this sham. Would you be happy if your child was a "success" through fraud like this?
I am black, have been since last week. Now where is my Obamaphone and all the other free stuff? When do I get the extra points on the civil service exam? When do my kids and grand kids get admitted to college under affirmative action?
Seriously, one can understand the absurdity of a proposition by taking it to the extreme. For instance, if every white person in America suddenly declared themselves to be black, all of the racial set-asides that favor blacks would disappear. Think about that.
I hope so... the thing most people are missing in this is that she claimed to be black for the same reason criminals rob banks. Because that’s where the money is.
bookmark
I keep re self-Identifying and seem to be stuck going from one minority group to another
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