True enough. But when she presents herself as black she doubtlessly gets extra scrutiny in the stores and some of the other adversities. Yes, she can undo her blackness but it doesn’t mean she can’t experience it. Remember the book Black Like Me? Yes, he was only a temporary black for researching his book but I don’t think his experiences were phony.
No. She is a white woman in blackface. She sued a HBCU for anti-white discrimination. She is delusional and a compulsive liar.
But the difference is that that guy actually looked black.
Miss Rachel just looks like a uber-tanned white woman with big hair. But listening to her tales of struggle and oppression, you’d think we were talking about a person straight outta Africa or something.
The fact that she had to concoct hate mail and baboon whips to construct a “black experience” tells me that she hasn’t experienced true adversities due to her “racial” appearance. If she ever tells of the harrassment in stores she’s received for being black, I wouldn’t believe a single word of it.
I’m not outraged, but I don’t find Rachel a sympathetic figure. If I were to ever be a victim of a hate crime, I’d want people to believe me. Because of her lies, she’s given folks yet another reason to be skeptical of claims of racism. She’s also made it harder for those of us who never question someone’s self-identity. I shouldn’t have to worry if the light-skinned chick claiming cultural kinship with me is really a white person with a fetish looking to exploit my friendship.
When Griffen wrote his book in 1961 race relations in the US were far worse than what they are today. While discrimination certainly exists today, suggesting the experience of a black person in the Deep South in 1961 was comparable to that of one in Spokane, Washington today is bizarre. If found out, Griffen could have been lynched.
How does that change as a result of finding out that she’s not really black?
Suppose she was telling you the same tale of struggle and oppression but was relating it last week, before she was outed, would you be as skeptical? Or are you similarly skeptical when light-skinned black people relate tales of struggle and oppression?
I sure would have been skeptical! I would have been skeptical the moment she showed those childhood drawings of her with brown skin, along with all those pictures of her dark-skinned children.
My skin coloring is about a shade darker than hers. Guess which color crayon I used to to represent my skin tone when I was a little girl? Hint: It wasn’t brown.
Now would I have voiced my skepticism out loud? No. I’m wary and skeptical about a lot of stuff, but I generally keep my mouth shut unless there’s hard evidence. But I can’t see myself feeling comfortable around Rachel. I imagine she’s the type of person who can’t stop talking about how black she is. She strikes me as someone who loves to be “blacker than thou” . Even if she were genuinely black, I wouldn’t want to be around that.
But you better believe I’d be suspicious about this chick given everything that’s on her Facebook page.
I haven’t read the entire thread so I don’t know if this has already been addressed but I have one question:
Does she say “n***a”? Because it seems that black people are fine about using that word among themselves, and if she identifies as being black…
PS: All I can think about is that Dave Chappelle sketch where the leader of the KKK turns out to be a blind black guy. 
You’re the second person I’ve heard mention Clayton Bigsby in reference to this story. Further proof that truth is much stranger than fiction.
Agreed. This is the crux of the problem. If someone makes shit up, and others figure out that she’s making shit up, it makes real issues less credible.
I mostly felt sad for her until seeing the statements she made today. She’s still insisting she is right – basically because she feels that way.
Missed the edit window. It’s more than she feels black - it is more that she feels everything she did was right and proper. She’s dancing around her original claims against the college and some of the other stuff too well to be totally “just f*^#ing nuts”. Something makes me think she had plans/goals beyond being a leader of the Black Community we may never know about now.
Hmm. Which black people?
Black Twitter? Black comedians? Black people on TV and in movies? I don’t know, honestly, I don’t have any black friends. I get my black culture references from TV and the Internet.
(Just to clarify, I don’t have any black friends because the city I live in is predominately white and I simply never have the opportunity to make any black friends.)
piepiepie, you mentioned “us” somewhere when referring to black people so I’m picturing you as a black person - please don’t think for a minute that I’m trying to be offensive. It just struck me that it would be odd if this white lady who “identifies” as black says things that only black people are “allowed” to say, how an actual black person would feel about that.
I mean, she’s appropriated everything else? So sure.
Fun story. I was about 6. My brother pissed me off. I decided to call him the dirtiest word I could think up. My dad cut that shit down right quick. We don’t use that word in my family. I don’t know where I even heard nigger. Hard R. I knew it was bad though. I don’t really use it because of that incident. It’s a gross word. I discourage its use, but free country and all that.
I think this is the annoying thing about this whole shitstorm. She can love the culture, our hair, our history, but she won’t ever fully understand it. The first time someone called me a nigger I was so mad. I would’ve fought that kid if my mom didn’t tell me to cool it. I couldn’t have been older than 10 and was on my way to my softball game. Stupid innocuous shit like that, and then you’re slammed with a reminder you’re unwanted. Dolezal doesn’t know what that’s like. She doesn’t know what it’s like getting your first relaxer and being scared if the stuff gets in your eyes. She doesn’t know what it’s like to sit at her mother’s feet while she picks her hair, greases her scalp, and braids it. Or go into the kitchen with an older relative (my dad for me) and learning how to cook foods he grew up on, his parents grew up on, their parents grew up on. She won’t know how it feels to hear stories from those older relatives about going to the black school out in the country, or having to enter a restaurant from the back. Yet she says she identifies as black. Ha.
Anyway, I personally couldn’t care less if she wants to say the word. Like Paul Mooney said, “everybody wanna be a nigga but nobody wanna be a nigga.” She can get a little tan, get some curls sewn in, and hell, develop some rhythm of she wants. Now that everybody knows her shit, let’s see how long it’ll stay cool for Miss Becky. I can’t defend her ass in good conscience. I reserve the right to be a hypocrite though.
I’m with you on a lot of things in your post, but actually, this is a common event for people of many different backgrounds, not just black people.
I’d be a little more convinced of her inner blackness if she had gotten a full body tattoo of a very dark skin color, some plastic surgery to alter her features to look more African, and otherwise made an irreversible transformation.
Not that I’m convinced in any case, but crap, none of the charade was necessary. You can appreciate black culture and campaign for better civil rights without having to pretend to be black.
Well, of course. I meant specifically Black American cuisine, like greens or chitlins.
But by that same standard, a black kid adopted by white parents would also not know what it’s like to be black. Nor would a more recent immigrant from Africa.
Barack Obama is not really black by that standard, being both the son of a white mother who raised him and the son of an African immigrant. (There actually was some initial unenthusiasm about him in the black community on these grounds.) He wouldn’t have had those black experiences growing up, and so presumably wouldn’t understand the culture and the history. Is this your position?
I’m sorry. I thought this thread was about Rachel Dolezal?
Right. But the standard you’re applying to her would seem to have broader application.
[Personally, I think she’s not black because she’s not black. But you seem to be making a cultural litmus test out of it.]