You Guys Are Unprofessional...

[Roly Poly Oly-Garch]

As evidenced by the fact that no one has started a thread about this yet.

A controversy is raging over whether a prominent Washington state civil rights activist and Howard University graduate who claimed she was African American is actually white.

Rachel Dolezal, 37, is the president of the Spokane NAACP and has claimed to be the victim of a number of hate crimes. As questions were raised about the veracity of some of her reports this week, a white couple from Montana came forward to claim that Dolezal is their daughter.

Earlier this week, KXLY4 asked Dolezal about a photo posted to the NAACP chapter's Facebook page of a black man identified as Dolezal's father.

"I was wondering if your dad really is an African American man," Jeff Humphrey of KXLY4 asked Dolezal.

"That's a very ... I mean, I don't know what you're implying," Dolezal said.

"Are you African American?" Humphrey said.

"I don't understand the question," Dolezal said. She walked off-camera as Humphrey asked: "Are your parents, are they white?"

----

Rachel Dolezal did not return requests for comment. However, she dodged questions about her race this week after allegations that some hate crimes she had reported were fabricated.

"That question is not as easy as it seems," Dolezal said after being contacted by the Spokane Spokesman-Review at Eastern Washington University, where she is a part-time professor in the Africana studies program. "There's a lot of complexities ... and I don't know that everyone would understand that."

She added: "We're all from the African continent."

[hooplala]

I've been claiming to be transracial since around the time Nigel coined spicegender. Bitch is copping my style.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I've been claiming to be transracial since around the time Nigel coined spicegender. Bitch is copping my style.

[Faust]

Transracial sounds fine, at some point the human body's skin colour will be easily modifiable, at which point colour and racial markers will be a fashion accessory.

Now what I want to do it create the transprivilege movement. As a white male in his twenties with a comfortable lifestyle I am what would typically be considered privileged, however I know that underneath that all I am a put upon person of less privilege.

For this reason I would like to announce my candidacy for president of the NAACP, and would challenge anyone who opposes me as being both transphobic, ignorant and a privileged POS.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Transracial sounds fine, at some point the human body's skin colour will be easily modifiable, at which point colour and racial markers will be a fashion accessory.

Now what I want to do it create the transprivilege movement. As a white male in his twenties with a comfortable lifestyle I am what would typically be considered privileged, however I know that underneath that all I am a put upon person of less privilege.

For this reason I would like to announce my candidacy for president of the NAACP, and would challenge anyone who opposes me as being both transphobic, ignorant and a privileged POS.

TRANSPOOR.

[Dubya]

Meh. Michael Jackson beat her to it.

[Cain]

I am transGoldmanSachs, and that the public is not funding my lifestyle while I gamble the days away is causing me considerable mental distress.

[Rev Thwack]

I'm transPOTUS... I know deep down in my soul that I should be ferried from golf course to golf course in a private 777/helicopter to putt against world leaders while tourists flock to see my house.

[Roly Poly Oly-Garch]

Transendowed...So wipe that disappointed look off your face, you girthest pig.

[Roly Poly Oly-Garch]

COME ON NOW! You did that on purpose!

[Trivial]

Reminds me of the medievalpoc thing. 

[Junkenstein]

I've been claiming to be transracial since around the time Nigel coined spicegender. Bitch is copping my style.

I'm pretty sure Roger got on board with that too. As far as I know he's still self identifies as ANGRY BLACK WOMAN when appropriate.



It's all fairly minor to him anyway after dealing with being translizard. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

A lot of people are talking about this woman as if she simply lied and took advantage of the system by claiming to be black.

I think that it would take at least a 300-page book to really discuss the complexities of what's going on there. For example, if one can take advantage of the system by claiming to be black, that implies (strongly) that there are privileges that come along with being black that are greater than the privileges that come with being white; enough so that renouncing whiteness can open more doors than simply being white.

As a person who has been told (by my white ex-husband) that I am "culturally white", and (by my white mother) that by identifying as black I am "pretending to be someone I'm not" (which apparently ONLY applies to the African part of my mixed Black and Native American father's ancestry, since she actively encouraged my Native identity throughout my upbringing) I have lots and lots of crazy conflicting feelz about this situation. For one thing, I am happy about the conversation because it makes people actually talk about what race is, in the first place. Is race a social construct, or a biological reality? Can someone raised with black siblings (or by black parents) legitimately identify as black even if they have no immediate Aftrican ancestry? How does that concept apply to Native American or other communities? What actually makes someone white?

I honestly don't know enough about the situation to know whether she lied. Is it a lie to check the "black" box if you identify publicly, socially, and personally, as black? When is it wrong to identify as black? When is it wrong to identify as white? My entire life I have been taught that what matters is what you self-identify as, not blood quantum or appearance. So when does that cease to be the case, and for whom?

[The Johnny]

A full biography with multiple witnesses and testimonies is needed for this kind of shit, its complicated.

[axod]

It's all meta-trans-topical, IMHO.