Well, this has been an interesting week hasn’t it? I’m sure by now most of you have heard of Rachel Dolezal, the NAACP president from Spokane, Washington who was recently discovered perpetrating a fraud. For years, Dolezal pretended to be Black, and steeped herself into the culture. Talk about going all the way with it. It’s one thing to be an ally, but to take on an identity that isn’t truly yours? This is pretty deep.
How many people were in on this? Is Iggy Azealea somewhere taking notes? Is this peak “Columbusing”? Does her “activist cred” shield her from criticism of years of lying? I need my peoples to tell me whats on their minds with this situation. The jokes are flourishing online, so I will end this post with this last point. What is crazy is that, after all is said and done, she’ll probably have a book deal. Oh well.
-Marc Polite
(I’m really Black, y’all)
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Not sure how I feel about this whole story. Many of our people have passed for years and never revealed that they were black. They married into the culture and died with the secrets. It may happen more then we know that white women maybe passing as well. Should we condemn them? The only issue I see is her integrity, lying about who she is. Checking the box Black. Same as on the employment application when they ask the question Have you ever committed a crime? How many people lied to get that job? Or lied on their resume stretch the truth to make that resume marketable.
This country is built on lies. Look at history the way it is taught in schools. Its funny how our culture and contribution is hardly spoken about until Black History month or Hispanic month? So am I surprised that this is happening. No I am not.
Look how main stream media constantly feed us a steady diet about celebrities getting butt implants, lip injections, tanning their skin. Who are they tying to simulate? Now we see black celebrities doing the same thing. Noise jobs, breast implants. There is a sickness in this country that doesn’t promote and push individuality and being proud of who you are. We have so many entertainers now looking like Barbie Dolls. I can just imagine what our society will be like in the next couple of decades.
I won’t pretend to be black, but obviously you don’t have to be to find this charade just weird. HOWEVER! Isn’t there something fundamentally different in what Dolezal is trying to do (was trying to do?) when compared to Iggy Azealea? Azealea is closer to blackface, meaning, a mockery that co-opts black culture in order to make a buck….off a white audience who buys into the same ridiculous stereotypes of the performer. She is a demeaning caricature at best, and certainly sensitivity or real appreciation of the culture one “adopts” is utterly absent. Dolezal was attempting to do something different, something productive even, at least on a level. Though she needs to ask herself some questions, psychological questions; she wasn’t in it to make a mockery, or even a buck. I think it’s a psychological issue. She wanted to identify as black, but somewhere in that twisted approach seems to be a sincerity of wanting to understand and to work for justice. As bizarre as it is, and maybe even not right; I will save my vitriol over the co-opting of black culture for Ms. Iggy. I imagine she doesn’t know what the NAACP even is. Why would she? There’s no money in it. So if someone is going to co-opt a culture, I think motivation should count for something. Dolezal’s stunt is still weird, just not a hate-crime, like listening to an Iggy Azealea album should be.
Your “argument” is not really an argument but an emotion, one that is well documented in terms of the police and Black America. But you neglect to address the real issue at hand: Did Rachel Dolezal “out Black” you? Did she “out Black” African American women? Are you embarrassed that she holds a membership to NAACP but you do not? How do you justify not being a member? When the news of Rachel is over and done, will anyone care? Most importantly, it’s what you DIDN’T say. What about all the Blacks that are passing for White on a daily basis? What about Jennifer Lopez straightening her hair and Kim Kardashian lightening her skin? What about the Black actors like Cash Warren who are passing? Where is you contempt? It seems you’ve left out your true motivation. It would make a better story if you owned up to it.
Reaching, deflecting, and projecting. That’s all this comment does.