Rachel Dolezal is an activist for Black liberation and civil rights in the USA. She holds several positions as a leader of the Black liberation movement. As stated by the Gaurdian, Dolezal is chair of the Office of Police Ombudsman Commission in the Washington city of Spokane and president of the city’s chapter of African American civil rights organisation the NAACP.
However, instead of campaigning for these important causes as a Caucasian woman, she decided to don a wig of African hair, wear tan make up and lie to others about her race, pretending to be a Black African-American. This month, her parents approached the media, saying that she had European heritage and has thus been living a lie, conning people into believing that she has African lineage. The truth emerged after she had ousted her family, by lying to people about who her parents were, in a bid to hide her Caucasian heritage and family.
Some people are asking, “So why is this so offensive”? When we look beyond racial lines, we see that the issue is not just about White people trying to be Black or Black people trying to be White, but rather, that every culture deserves respect.
When Dolezal pretends on a daily basis to be Black, she is in essence mocking African culture, because she could never understand what it means to be African, as she has not experienced the cultural things that define Black-African culture. To add insult to the injury, she has consequently become the leader of a Black civil rights movement, despite her flawed understanding of her role in civil rights as a Caucasian woman.
Dolezal, cannot expect in any standard or measure, that pretending to be a Black African-American will give her an innate understanding of Black culture struggles, neither would marrying a Black man, having mixed-raced children or adopting African culture.
Of course, the culture we are raised in has a large impact on us, yet she was raised as a White woman in a Caucasian family, not as a Black woman in an African family. One can question however, if her pretending to be Black is a psychological insecurity from growing up in a predominantly African-American neighborhood, where she had Black friends and presumably felt “left out” for being White. Perhaps it is her human desire to fit in, to be with the crowd, that compelled her to change her identity and hide her family origins.
The ironic part about this is that she does not even look Black as per say, and in most parts of the world would be considered mixed race. Perhaps the most offensive and alarming part of her deception, is that fact that she stated, "She was born in a tepee, and the family hunted with bows and arrows. She also described living in South Africa” (Buzzfeed).
Of course, none of that is true and is highly offensive to South Africans in general. It’s as though Dolezal thinks that being a Black-African means being a Khoi-san and hunting lions, whilst sleeping in a tee-pee at night, because that’s “what we South Africans do”.
The most shocking part of such an ignorant statement, is that it comes from the Chair of the Office of Police Ombudsman Commission in the Washington city of Spokane and President of the city’s chapter of African American civil rights organisation the NAACP. It can only be pondered upon how she managed to con people to a point whereby she landed said positions, and is an "African American Professor" of the course ‘Race relations in America’ at Eastern Washington University.
The crux of this issue, remains in the fact that when a person is raised of a particular culture, that person will have certain subconscious cultural nuances, that are unique to the culture that he/she was raised in. This means that Dolezal would have had to have pretended on many levels to understand certain things that is naturally and intrinsically understood by those raised in Black-African culture, however, because she herself was not raised in Black-African culture, that is why it is deeply inauthentic.
Further more, if Dolezal had decided to support the movement as a Caucasian woman, not trying to mask, change or hide her inherent Whiteness, then Dolezal would have a considerable amount more respect as the Caucasian she is, in a bid to not only rectify the errors of her European ancestors who created apartheid and Black oppression, but to show her commitment towards uplifting a culture that is not her own- would have far proven her dedication to the culture, when instead, she has only proven her extremely flawed understanding of the Black Rights movement.
When a person lies about who they are, by pretending to have certain cultural nuances (including an African accent), then we have to question whether she truly respects the fact that she does not understand what it is to be a Black African-American. Further more, she documented to have been a victim of 8 racial hate crimes, and yet none of those where found to be categorically true.
It seems apparent that Dolezal’s core desire was to be accepted by the Black community, even if it meant effectively conning the black community about who she is. Ironically Dolezal has achieved her desire to “raise awareness of Black rights” because in her ignorant effort to dispel racial inequality, she has only highlighted how far civil society still has to go, especially in the case of Caucasians learning to respect Black-African culture without wearing 'Black face'.
In the end of it, the core purpose of activism, is to create a tolerant and peaceful society and humanity, that is driven by the values of respect and equality. Respect, can only occur when people learn to accept cultures that are different from their own, beyond race. For example, respect and tolerance doesn't happen when a Chinese person pretends to be Tibetan… respect and tolerance happens when a Chinese person accepts the fact that a Tibetan person is Tibetan and works on dispelling social myths that Tibetans are faced with, whilst supporting the Tibetan movement as a Chinese person (different cultures-same skin colour). You see, the issue is not actually about race, it’s about culture, and we can only evolve into having a peaceful society when we learn to accept and respect various cultures around the world, as they are.
