# Local NAACP Leader Fabricates Black Ethnicity **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 12, 2015, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357 "2015-06-12T13:35:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/81 "2015-06-13T02:41:27Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Gender disphoria is a thing, but the issue of whether or not it’s a disorder or whether people with the condition should indulge themselves is not settled science. It’s only settled politics. > > Racial disphoria cannot be a thing, because race doesn’t exist. Therefore, it’s outside the realm of medicine. But it is still within the realm of politics, and the urge to reject it seems to me mainly based on the need of the social justice set to classify people by race. Letting people be any race they feel they identify with most ruins everything. > > In the case of this particular person, she has lived as a black person since she was very young and has changed her appearance so that she was accepted as black in appearance for years. The NAACP has rushed to her defense and the only people that really seem to have an issue are her parents and some Twitter denizens. While I don’t care about her living as whatever race she wants, I really feel she should be charged and prosecuted if she has been making a string of false reports to police of racially motivated hate crimes. I seem to recall filing false police reports/complaints is a crime, and I don’t see why she should get away with it. And with my postings in the police threads that should say something. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/82 "2015-06-13T03:05:59Z")
I agree with that much, but in practice, how often is filing false complaints actually prosecuted? ---
**Author:** ![computergeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e56c9b/32.png) [@computergeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/computergeek)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/83 "2015-06-13T03:34:29Z")
> [@grude](#): > > While I don’t care about her living as whatever race she wants, I really feel she should be charged and prosecuted if she has been making a string of false reports to police of racially motivated hate crimes. I seem to recall filing false police reports/complaints is a crime, and I don’t see why she should get away with it. > > And with my postings in the police threads that should say something. At the very least, she shouldn’t continue to be a pillar of the community or in charge of that local NAACP chapter if she has in fact fabricated so much, including filing false police reports ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/84 "2015-06-13T03:39:12Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Gender disphoria is a thing, but the issue of whether or not it’s a disorder or whether people with the condition should indulge themselves is not settled science. It’s only settled politics. > > Racial disphoria cannot be a thing, because race doesn’t exist. Therefore, it’s outside the realm of medicine. But it is still within the realm of politics, and the urge to reject it seems to me mainly based on the need of the social justice set to classify people by race. Letting people be any race they feel they identify with most ruins everything. > > In the case of this particular person, she has lived as a black person since she was very young and has changed her appearance so that she was accepted as black in appearance for years. The NAACP has rushed to her defense and the only people that really seem to have an issue are her parents and some Twitter denizens. She’s 37 and by most accounts has been physically passing as black for about the last 8-9 years or so, not “since she was very young”. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/85 "2015-06-13T04:05:38Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I think the thing most people here don’t understand with regard to the jibes being made in regard to transgender/transracial people is that the funmaking isn’t aimed at transgender people themselves so much as it is at the social justice warriors hellbent to make sure everyone else conforms to their ideas about how to think about and deal with transgenderism and their hostility toward anyone who doesn’t. The motives of the people using this story to attack transgender folks aren’t so complex that you need to explain them to us, and your explanation is as unpersuasive as it is unnecessary. It’s rather sweet that you think anyone’s credulous enough to believe you, though. Next I expect you to try the “got your nose!” trick. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/86 "2015-06-13T04:30:01Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Racial disphoria cannot be a thing, because race doesn’t exist. Therefore, it’s outside the realm of medicine. It might not exist scientifically or genetically-speaking, but it sure as hell exists as a social construct and a mental framework/lens. Considering the various disphorias are wholly psychological phenomenons, that aspect seems \*somewhat \*medically relevant. For that matter gender cannot be a thing, using your _sui generis_ and frankly _weird_ normative standard. Anorexia cannot be a thing either. Nor can schyzophrenia, because the voices don’t exist ! Therefore, etc… > [@](#): > > But it is still within the realm of politics, and the urge to reject it seems to me mainly based on the need of the social justice set to classify people by race. Letting people be any race they feel they identify with most ruins everything. It does ? How so, precisely and concretely speaking ? Wait, what’s the “everything”, to begin with ? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/87 "2015-06-13T04:32:41Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Racial disphoria cannot be a thing, because race doesn’t exist. And yet somehow, every time there’s a lynching, it’s the one black guy in the crowd who ends up dead. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/88 "2015-06-13T05:18:37Z")
Whether the NAACP discipline her or not is irrelevant. They are a private organisation. If, howeve, she lied to take advantage of race base advancement programs they she should be criminally charged. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/89 "2015-06-13T06:37:08Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > Whether the NAACP discipline her or not is irrelevant. They are a private organisation. If, howeve, she lied to take advantage of race base advancement programs they she should be criminally charged. “Passing” as another race is something black people are very familiar with and somewhat sympathetic to as a means to get a leg up. I’m pretty sure that while she will be removed from committees etc over time, that black people’s judgment of her actions will be more understanding and sympathetic than white peoples. White progressives outraged _for_ blacks seem to be making the harshest comments so far. Black people are bemused and black women specifically are fascinated by her amazing hair styling skills, and conservatives are laughing their asses off and making Caitlyn Jenner comparisons. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/90 "2015-06-13T07:57:51Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > It might not exist scientifically or genetically-speaking, but it sure as hell exists as a social construct and a mental framework/lens. Considering the various disphorias are wholly psychological phenomenons, that aspect seems \*somewhat \*medically relevant. > > For that matter gender cannot be a thing, using your _sui generis_ and frankly _weird_ normative standard. Anorexia cannot be a thing either. Nor can schyzophrenia, because the voices don’t exist ! Therefore, etc… > > It does ? How so, precisely and concretely speaking ? Wait, what’s the “everything”, to begin with ? The point is, it’s entirely subjective, so it is whatever a person says it is. This lady might be mentally ill, but her choice of racial identity is not evidence of that by itself. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/91 "2015-06-13T08:54:47Z")
> [@astro](#): > > She’s 37 and by most accounts has been physically passing as black for about the last 8-9 years or so, not “since she was very young”. Her parents have said that she started identifying as black about the time they adopted their four black children in the mid-nineties. This would have made Dolezal around 16 years old (or fairly young) at the time these children came into her life. Apparently she began to pass and live as black sometime around 2007, which her parents say is the time also when she began to display hostility toward them. My own suspicion is that the split occurred because Dolezal’s parents weren’t accepting of her black identity, especially in light of comments she made Thursday in an interview with a local TV station: > [@](#): > > “What I say to them is, ‘I don’t give two sh---- about what you guys think,’” she said in a Thursday interview with KREM-TV. “You’re so far done and gone out of my life … I do not talk to (them) anymore.” [Cite](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/naacp-leader-rachel-dolezal-lied-black-parents-article-1.2255743) ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/92 "2015-06-13T09:47:23Z")
I think this is hilarious. I can’t stop thinking of her as a female Ali G. This woman is a bullshit artist. If the only lie she’d told was about her race, the situation would be entirely different. But she’s making up evil stepfathers and beatings with baboon whips and childhoods in tents. She has all the hallmarks of someone who lies constantly and chronically, for attention, adulation and sympathy. Remember the [Holocaust survivor who was raised by wolves](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misha_Defonseca)? Or the [half-white-half-Native-American foster child who grew up as a Blood in LA with her ‘homies’](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Seltzer)? This is the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/93 "2015-06-13T11:59:06Z")
Her parents adopted four kids of very similar ages starting from when she was sixteen? And before that, she was an only child? Honestly, that sounds a little off-kilter in itself. You’re a teenager, trying to map out your future life and … suddenly your parents change your entire family structure right out from under your feet. I’m really not that surprised she’s become estranged from her parents. The fact that the other four kids were racially different from her would have put an extra layer of weirdness on top of that, but the primary problem looks more like that she feels she got elbowed out of her own family by her adopted sibs. So then she goes two ways … she tries to be like the younger kids as much as possible, trying to be a part of the gang any way she can. But at the same time she’s got this immense anger at her parents for “replacing” her. Which ultimately comes out in accusing them of horrible child abuse. She’s obviously got some serious issues. But she may have had some help getting to that stage. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/94 "2015-06-13T12:10:49Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Gender disphoria is a thing, but the issue of whether or not it’s a disorder or whether people with the condition should indulge themselves is not settled science. It’s only settled politics. No, it is settled science. This has been discussed in numerous transgender threads on here for years. And “indulge themselves.” Please, try to be less obvious. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/95 "2015-06-13T12:15:42Z")
> [@astro](#): > > “Passing” as another race is something black people are very familiar with and somewhat sympathetic to as a means to get a leg up. I’m pretty sure that while she will be removed from committees etc over time, that black people’s judgment of her actions will be more understanding and sympathetic than white peoples. White progressives outraged _for_ blacks seem to be making the harshest comments so far. Black people are bemused and black women specifically are fascinated by her amazing hair styling skills, and conservatives are laughing their asses off and making Caitlyn Jenner comparisons. It seems likely that she faked hate crimes against herself. She made black people, including her child, think that there were people in the area who were threatening to harm her because of her race and the police couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything about it. Once the gravity of that sinks in, I don’t see her getting much sympathy. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/96 "2015-06-13T12:35:32Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > No, it is settled science. This has been discussed in numerous transgender threads on here for years. > > And “indulge themselves.” Please, try to be less obvious. :rolleyes: Even assuming you’re right(admittedly, I don’t keep up with the very latest in science, my knowledge might be out of date), it’s interesting how science followed only after the movement for transgender rights gained momentum. And that if the science was “wrong”, then scientists and doctors could lose their careers. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/97 "2015-06-13T12:41:19Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > Remember the [Holocaust survivor who was raised by wolves](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misha_Defonseca)? Or the [half-white-half-Native-American foster child who grew up as a Blood in LA with her ‘homies’](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Seltzer)? This is the same thing. Not to mention [the woman who escaped from the WTC on 9/11 who was the president of a 9/11 survivors group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_Esteve_Head). ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/98 "2015-06-13T12:41:21Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Even assuming you’re right(admittedly, I don’t keep up with the very latest in science, my knowledge might be out of date), it’s interesting how science followed only after the movement for transgender rights gained momentum. And that if the science was “wrong”, then scientists and doctors could lose their careers. Is this the paranoid conspiracy theory of a man frightened by the fluidity of gender, or do you have some evidence–maybe even examples–of scientists whose rigorous studies suggest that gender dysphoria is not real, and who got fired for their work? ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/99 "2015-06-13T12:46:52Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Even assuming you’re right(admittedly, I don’t keep up with the very latest in science, my knowledge might be out of date), it’s interesting how science followed only after the movement for transgender rights gained momentum. And that if the science was “wrong”, then scientists and doctors could lose their careers. So I assume you think science showing homosexuality is not a mental disorder is also suspect, by the exact same reasoning? And that you’re also suspicious of science showing that “hysteria” is not a female disease brought on by the fragile female psyche? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2015, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/100 "2015-06-13T12:49:05Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Is this the paranoid conspiracy theory of a man frightened by the fluidity of gender, or do you have some evidence–maybe even examples–of scientists whose rigorous studies suggest that gender dysphoria is not real, and who got fired for their work? It is very much real, what is still in dispute(as far as I know) is whether the solution to gender disphoria is a sex change. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357.md?page=6)