Rachel Dolezal Back in the News

[Black Aliss]

Mods: I'm posting this in QFOS because of the fundie black adoption connection. If you find it belongs in a different forum, please move.

So Rachel Dolezal, who identifies as black, is back in the news because she is broke, on the brink of homelessness and the only jobs she gets offered are in reality TV and porn. This should be empowering for her, as her situation is identical to that of any person of color who has been caught up in a scandal and/or convicted of a crime. She does finally have a publisher for her memoir, but I think all the good spoilers are in this Guardian article.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/25/rachel-dolezal-not-going-stoop-apologise-grovel?CMP=twt_gu

It's a fascinating read mainly because RD is a composite of so many of the QFOS subjects from the Nauglers to the Pearls to the adopters who save black children for the lord. From her unattended home birth to the modest clothing, growing up foraging and helping maintain the homestead, having the devil beaten out of her, raising her 4 younger adopted siblings after her mother took to bed with self-diagnosed CFS. . .You get the picture. Add in a generous helping of patriarchy, and I'm actually at the point of feeling sorry for RD.

 

[Othello]

Ha, just the other day I got a spam email ostensibly from "Rachel Dolezal", one of those "I have cancer and am trying to find someone to give my millions to" bits of nonsense. I feel sorry for her too, although she's a bit off the deep end it seems. 

On the flip side though, sometimes I wish I could just identify as black so I don't have to be associated with white nonsense anymore 

[Black Aliss]

7 minutes ago, Othello said:

On the flip side though, sometimes I wish I could just identify as black so I don't have to be associated with white nonsense anymore 

I was born in the US but right now I would like to identify as New Zealander.

[NakedKnees]

Interesting read. I do feel the tiniest bit bad for her, but not terribly. It might have been cool if she spent the last 2 years learning about race and identity, being openly white, speaking to her critics and psychologists, and THEN writing about her experience, but nope.

I never realized how fundy her background was. Her parents infuriate me. I wonder if they were connected to any of the orgs we examine here... she was public schooled and allowed to go to college, so there is that.

[acheronbeach]

I feel sorry for her.  I think she's an intelligent woman with deep-seated mental health issues.  Her intelligence allows her to internally justify her abnormal and bizarre mental state.  She needs help. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

I feel bad that she had a shitty fundie upbringing. But she lied. A lot. And she doesn't feel the least bit bad or wrong for doing it. Sure you can feel like you fit into a different culture better than your own. So have all black friends, and black boyfriends, and black children. That's fine. But don't lie and say you are black. Because you aren't. 

[nastyhobbitses]

18 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I feel bad that she had a shitty fundie upbringing. But she lied. A lot. And she doesn't feel the least bit bad or wrong for doing it. Sure you can feel like you fit into a different culture better than your own. So have all black friends, and black boyfriends, and black children. That's fine. But don't lie and say you are black. Because you aren't. 

I think that's the crux of it for me. Really identify with black culture? That's cool, you do you and learn a lot and grow a lot and celebrate it. Do your thing. But when you lie for personal gain, as she did by obtaining employment and professional recognition by pretending to be black, that's completely out of line.

I liken it to the Stolen Valor guys. If you want to go play Army Soldier and spend your downtime researching obscure World War II battles and all that, great. You do you. Military history is very interesting. But if you lie about military service to get money, a job, or to gain someone's trust, you're nothing but a fraud.

[Glasgowghirl]

28 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I feel bad that she had a shitty fundie upbringing. But she lied. A lot. And she doesn't feel the least bit bad or wrong for doing it. Sure you can feel like you fit into a different culture better than your own. So have all black friends, and black boyfriends, and black children. That's fine. But don't lie and say you are black. Because you aren't. 

Same here, she should have been honest and said she was white but felt trapped in black persons body, people may not have understood but she wouldn't have faced the backlash she got. 

[Black Aliss]

2 hours ago, NakedKnees said:

I never realized how fundy her background was. Her parents infuriate me. I wonder if they were connected to any of the orgs we examine here... she was public schooled and allowed to go to college, so there is that.

She writes about attending school but according to wikipedia she "was homeschooled via the Christian Liberty Academy CLASS program". (I don't usually give wikipedia credibility over someone's personal account, but in this case I'm willing to make an exception. It guess it could have been a homeschooling co-op with other fundie families.) After high school she did enroll at a Christian liberal arts college in Mississippi.

 

[Coy Koi]

Interesting article. It touched on some of her other dishonesty, such as claiming to have been born in a teepee, but it said the police department was basically just tired of dealing with her and her reports of hate crimes and racial harassing letters. It didn't mention that evidence showed she faked harassing letters. Now, I don't know for SURE that this is true. I suppose the police department could be corrupt enough to fabricate evidence. It's obviously been done before. But it's strange they didn't even mention it at all.

The impression I get is that she is a compulsive liar with a lot of issues. I would bet money she has told a huge number of random lies that just haven't made it to the media. Granted, she came about her issues through no fault of her own and I feel bad for what she went through as a child. But the woman needs help, and it seems clear she has not gotten any or even recognized a need for it.

I do have to say that her hair is impressive. I've seen a bunch of pictures of her with different hairstyles and not in one would I ever suspect that her natural hair was straight. She looks like someone that, if I knew her, I might have asked for hair product and styling recommendations for my biracial daughter.

[acheronbeach]

She wears a lot of wigs.

[Jencendiary]

She attended a black hair event last year, and her hair without the wig -- whew. She was a warning for white women about tight braiding and traction alopecia.

 

Spoiler

 

[elliha]

I don't feel that bad for her to be honest but I do think some of it is down to being a compulsive liar. My grandfather was one and so is one of my colleagues. They often believe at least some of their own lies in my experience but they mostly know they are lying so they can control it at least partly. She admits to knowing she is not black so I think she could have avoided lying about this. Her upbringing is tragic and does explain some things but that doesn't make her actions OK.

[Lurky]

She's a classic example of the child who cried wolf - she lied, and lied, and lied so much that I read about her terrible childhood, and my first instinct is to want evidence of it - or at least her siblings saying "yeah, that's how it was".  This part of the Guardian article is bang on:

Quote

Dolezal’s desire to correct this misperception in her book is entirely understandable, but I wish someone had told her that readers can only take so much misfortune before doubt sets in: I have never read a more exhaustive encyclopaedia of outlandish injustice. In person, by contrast, she comes across as highly credible, and her central claim that a lie can be more honest than a biological “truth” has an internal logic. I don’t think Dolezal deliberately or knowingly lies. What she calls her “creative non-fiction” does, though, make me uneasy. She has admitted to fabricating needless deceits in the past – she once claimed to have been born in a tepee – which makes me worry that her subjective concept of truth matters more to her than veracity.

I do feel for her, because obviously she has a LOT of issues, and if she'd pretended to be Black while getting a job in a normal office, or teaching English, or working on homeless issues, or stacking shelves, eg, I wouldn't care so much.  Hell, even if she taught herself a ton of skills re braiding and weaves, and just made her living as an expert in Black hair.    But she not only lived in blackface, she took jobs from actual Black people, that were explicitly about the Black identity and issues facing Black communities. 

The trans-Black stuff is just bullshit.  Utter, utter bullshit.  It's offensive to Trans people, and especially to Black and other minority ethnic communities,  because while Dolezal can make herself up, braid her hair, fake an accent etc etc, it's impossible for an, I dunno, Pakistani-origin person, or an African-American in the south USA, who really feels that they're white, to do the same thing. For sure, a minority of mixed-race people can pass, but the vast majority of people can't. 

[Terrie]

Her lying disgusts me, but no one should be homeless.

[Black Aliss]

I guess her creative non-fiction isn't lying anymore. It's just alternative facts!

[applejack]

I'm finding it hard to muster up the give-a-damns for her, and with someone who has been caught in lie after lie about.... everything really, I have a really hard time even, believing that all these things even happened? I know, that makes me that asshole who accuses someone of lying and may well get proven wrong about it, in which case I'll eat crow, but... I dunno. 

My best friend uses a phrase that fits very well: Everything But the Burden. She puts on wigs to put forth the idea that she has natural hair, she uses makeup and self-tanner to darken her skin, so she can "fit in" with blackfolk and be "one of them," but end of the day she can take those things off. She can turn off her blackness when she wants to, but a black woman can't. A black woman has to live with the burden of being black day in and day out. She is told that her natural hair is unruly and "unprofessional," black women are taught to hate their natural hair and to do something about it, so out come the pressin' combs and hair relaxers. That is a burden that Dolezal will never have to face. No matter how much she wants to believe otherwise, race is not fluid. 

To use another example, another friend of mine is adopted, and when she turned 18 she was able to get her adoption information from her adoption agency. She discovered that her biological father and his side of her genetic makeup were Mexican. She, rightfully I think, has not begun to identify as Mexican because, again, it's a burden she's never had to carry because she didn't know it until she was on her way into adulthood, until then she had always identified as a white as a sheet of paper, cisgender queer girl, and to suddenly change that would not be a good look and taking on part of a burden she knew nothing about. 

[Terrie]

I'm not comfortable comparing her situation to people who actually are part of a minority but can pass, even indirectly. I've known people, such as bi people in opposite gender relationships or biracial people whose appearance favors their white parent, who have really struggled with the conflict of their identity vs. how they are perceived by society. I have one biracial friend who made a very deliberate choice to start using his full name, including his very obviously hispanic middle name, because he felt like he was giving up his connection with his Mexican mother and her side of his family when people pegged him as white based on his very WASP-y first and last name that he inherited from his white father. Even when it really is his identity and his community, it's a source of tension between him and his brother who takes much more after their mother and would never be pegged as white. Both guys get what the issues are and why they are issues and it's still tough for them both to figure out what the "right" thing is.

Meanwhile, Ms. Dolezal doesn't seem to care about anything beyond herself.

[acheronbeach]

45 minutes ago, applejack said:

I'm finding it hard to muster up the give-a-damns for her, and with someone who has been caught in lie after lie about.... everything really, I have a really hard time even, believing that all these things even happened? I know, that makes me that asshole who accuses someone of lying and may well get proven wrong about it, in which case I'll eat crow, but... I dunno. 

She is a liar, and an easily proven liar. 

Look at her interview here: http://easterneronline.com/35006/eagle-life/a-life-to-be-heard/

She is posing in front of what she tells the reporter is her own "original painting."  Which was painted by Turner in 1840. 

[Black Aliss]

43 minutes ago, acheronbeach said:

She is a liar, and an easily proven liar. 

Look at her interview here: http://easterneronline.com/35006/eagle-life/a-life-to-be-heard/

She is posing in front of what she tells the reporter is her own "original painting."  Which was painted by Turner in 1840. 

Wow. The lie about the painting (the resemblance is pretty striking to Turner's "Slave Ship" is just the tip of the alternative facts iceberg. That entire article is essentially fiction. I guess EWU doesn't teach its budding journalists about fact-checking.

[Palimpsest]

2 hours ago, Black Aliss said:

Wow. The lie about the painting (the resemblance is pretty striking to Turner's "Slave Ship" is just the tip of the alternative facts iceberg. That entire article is essentially fiction. I guess EWU doesn't teach its budding journalists about fact-checking.

I think she is a compulsive liar and I find it really hard to muster an iota of sympathy for her.  There is a major cog loose in her brain is the kindest thing I can come up with.  Alternative facts, indeed.

 However, I'll fall over myself to be fair.  That is a triptych.  First panel - boy drawing back curtain.  Second panel -  looks like a copy "in the school of" Turner bearing a remarkable resemblance to "Slave Ship" but with added doves so we can't accuse her of forgery.  Third panel - boy closing curtain.  

If I have the energy I might search out paintings of boys opening and closing curtains to see whether she swiped those images too.

[acheronbeach]

Shawntelle Moncy is a terrible writer, no doubt about it.  I'm not speaking from the pulpit - I was a college newspaper journalist.  After graduating, I wrote for a national newspaper in Canada.

Beyond Shawntelle Moncy's subpar vocabulary (three horizontal paintings side by side is called a "tryptich" FYI), there are a ton of facts that could easily be confirmed  by objective third parties.  Instead the Easterner article is a lot of breathless pearl clutching at Rachel Dolezal's obvious bullshit.

[acheronbeach]

Aaand... I realize that I drunkenly spelled triptych wrong, so I really don't have much basis for criticizing someone else's writing. 

[catlady]

yeah, but at least you know what the word is.  

[BobTheWalrus]

On 28/02/2017 at 6:15 PM, Terrie said:

I'm not comfortable comparing her situation to people who actually are part of a minority but can pass, even indirectly. I've known people, such as bi people in opposite gender relationships or biracial people whose appearance favors their white parent, who have really struggled with the conflict of their identity vs. how they are perceived by society. I have one biracial friend who made a very deliberate choice to start using his full name, including his very obviously hispanic middle name, because he felt like he was giving up his connection with his Mexican mother and her side of his family when people pegged him as white based on his very WASP-y first and last name that he inherited from his white father. Even when it really is his identity and his community, it's a source of tension between him and his brother who takes much more after their mother and would never be pegged as white. Both guys get what the issues are and why they are issues and it's still tough for them both to figure out what the "right" thing is.

Meanwhile, Ms. Dolezal doesn't seem to care about anything beyond herself.

Man, I hadn't really thought about that, about how even between siblings in a mixed race family, there can be such marked differences.  That must be really difficult to handle.