You misunderstand the meaning of “promoted”, if you think this somehow proves your assertion. She didn’t get a job promotion, she got “bragged about”, and in “hey look, we’ve got an Indian on our faculty”.
Hey, the guy is one-eighth victim. He has a right to his oppression.
One of the many downsides of affirmative action is that no university or employer is ever honest or straightforward about it. There are some people who get into Harvard because of their race, and others who are rejected because of their race. But does Harvard ever straightforwardly say, “X was admitted because of race” or “Y was rejected because of race”? Harvard knows that such statements would be embarrassing, and could potentially get dragged into their legal troubles rising from discrimination against Asians.
So we wouldn’t expect Harvard to say that Warren’s race played any role even if it did. But given the facts, it’s a decent guess.
Let’s say she didn’t lie about anything, but said she always felt like a black woman in a white woman’s body, and wanted to live her life as her true self? Would you still consider her to be mentally ill?
What’s the innate difference between a white woman and a black woman?
Which facts?
That’s the larger question I’ve been thinking about. How much of our self identity is innate, and how much is imposed by society’s perceptions and expectations?
Just to add:
Many white women curl their hair, use self tanner, marry black men, study black history, and participate in civil rights causes. So why did she need to be deceptive about her background? The only difference is how she would be perceived and accepted by society.
I would consider her a self-loathing white person, which isn’t a DSV-V diagnosis. But I think I would have a hard time feeling comfortable around such a person IF they had a background like Rachel Dolezal’s. Seems to me she simply didn’t like her upbringing, her parents, or her pre-2000s identity and came up with a way to separate herself from these things as much as possible. That’s not pathological, but it is still an extreme coping mechanism. No telling what she’s liable to do.
I’ve known a number of white folks who I wouldn’t be bothered granting “honorary blackness”. However, all of them were born and raised in black culture, around black folks. Even still, being “honorary black” doesn’t preclude someone from still identifying with their white parentage and upbringing. If someone is so pained by their past that they can’t even truthfully acknowledge it, even if it’s just to say “sorry, I don’t want to talk about it”, then I would feel that they are untrustworthy in general. Not out of evil maliciousness. But due to a deep-seated personality defect.
Well put. Pretty much sums up my thoughts, but written much better than I was able to.
Thank you monstro, that seems to express very well my own reaction too.
In the words of Cecil Adams, “some people lie because they profit from it, some fib because they’re sick, and some do it because they’re lying sacks of shit”.
The caricatured analogies some make about this case suggest minds already made up to mock and deride rather than to understand.
I agree with most of your analysis, but if you note my question, I was asking about how she would be perceived without the deception about her background. I assume you wouldn’t consider her untrustworthy in that case, but would you still think she was self loathing? She has four black siblings; doesn’t that count as being raised around black people?
It’s a good bet this woman has psychological issues - the need for the elaborate deception speaks to that - but generally speaking, is there a limit to how much people can identify with and immerse themselves in a different race/culture that would cause us to question their mental health?
Obviously lying about hate crimes and making up fake facts about your family isn’t cool.
But how many black women straighten their hair, lighten their skin, study European history and/or marry white guys? Cultural appropriation is a tricky beast, but I’m always a little taken back by the idea that a white person who has a strong interest in a minority culture must have something wrong with them, while an attraction to European culture is just natural and unremarkable.
I have a lot of friends with an interest in living and working in Africa, and they hear everything from “Are you in it for the black guys?” to “What’s so wrong with America?” But nobody would bat an eye at a Ghanian who liked American pop culture and wanted to eat a lot of hamburgers.
The only problem with that hypothetical is that she wouldn’t have lasted for a week without lying about her background. The lying was not some separable action, but an essential part of her modus operandi.
I have no problem with her studying or teaching African-American history, culture or literature. She can curl her hair and darken her skin all she wants. But claiming to be black is a step too far. She did NOT grow up as a black person, suffering the indignities that black people suffer.
She “wouldn’t have lasted for a week” in what way? Are you referring to her position with the NAACP? They do hire white people, and have always done so. I assume she had the credentials they were looking for that weren’t race-based. I’ll grant you that she probably thought they wouldn’t if they knew the truth, but now we’ll never know.
This I agree with. IMO being a pathological liar is the real issue in her case. What I’m questioning in the hypothetical is whether or not she would still be considered mentally ill if she had been honest about her background. Lying about being black is wrong, but is wanting to live as a black woman crazy? Would she have been accepted if she was honest? Apparently she thought not.
The African-American community uses the word “pass”, as in “to pass as white”. The presumption is that being presumed white by society gives far greater benefits than affirmative action ever could. AA is a complicated process and too many people think it means “give the job/promotion/admission to the undeserving black person” as if being black automatically means being undeserving.
In this case we have a white woman attempting to pass as black. I’ve never heard of this outside of a bad movie. But when we say race is a “social construct”, what we mean is that it really doesn’t matter what your ancestry i, or what race you “feel like”, as as much as what society thinks it is. If your ancestry is mixed Asian and Native Anerican but you look black, then in America you’re treated as black.
Is there anyone saying that this chick has something wrong with her just because she has an affinity for black people? I mean, I can rattle off a long list of white folks who have some flava, who no one has armchair-diagnosed with a mental illness.
We aren’t talking about someone like this.
And yes, there are black people who have fully assimilated Anglo/European cultural and political expressions. But unless they are also claiming to be white and disowning their black parentage, they aren’t analogous to Ms. Dolezal.
Everyone would bat an eye if the Ghanian bleached his skin, donned a blonde wig, and I called himself a white American. This is akin to what Ms. Dolezal has done. Hence, why everyone is talking about it.
I don’t think she would have caught any flak if she had said something like: “Yes, I am a white person, born and raised by and around white folks. But shortly after I started college, I immersed myself around black people and in black culture, and had a sort of re-awakening. I will never deny that I am Caucasian. But my chosen identity is one of blackness, since it reasonates with me more than anything else.”
Sure, there would be folks that would still be raising their eyebrows. But you can’t argue with someone about their feelings. You CAN argue with someone about their genetic heritage.
Agreed, this woman is clearly nuts. I just find all the speculation ("Did she perm her hair to be like that?) to be kind of interesting. Obvious bizarreness aside (claiming fake parents, making up fake facts) its like there are clear lines as to what is beyond the pale going one way and fuzzy lines going the other way.
I don’t think a black person straightening their hair, lightening their skin and letting people assume they were white would be unremarkable. They would be accused of being a self hater. If a black person’s favorite genre was country or they watched a lot of hockey, they’d get a lot of comments from blacks and whites. The majority’s culture is definitely seen as mainstream, but a black person will be seen as odd if they embrace things that are on the fringes of mainstream white culture, like NASCAR.