Who remembers Rachel Dolezal?
 

Who else remembers Rachel Dolezal? She entered the public eye on the national level in the mid-2010's, when it was revealed that while she had claimed to be Black in several different capacities (job applications, her work in academia, volunteer work, etc.). Eventually she was outed as having white parents and no Black ancestry at all, and she was ultimately asked to step down from her position as an NAACP chapter president, chair of the Office of the Police Ombudsman Commission in Spokane, Washington, and from her position as an adjunct instructor of several different Africana studies classes.

Now to me at least there are some obvious parallels with the transgender movement, and I have been thinking a lot about the general public's response to Dolezal's statement that she is "transracial" or "trans-black" (she has used both terms at different times but I think she settled on "trans-black" since transracial is a term used to describe when a family of one race adopts a child of another race or whatever). I ended up going down a whole rabbit hole, like reading about Sacheen Littlefeather, the woman who spoke for Marlon Brando at the 1973 Oscars, who apparently was of white and Hispanic descent, no Native American ancestry whatsoever. Apparently there is a term for people like this, "pretendian", and all of can be considered examples of racial misrepresentation.

In my mind there is definitely a difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation, but sometimes where exactly that line lies isn't clear. Someone of one race can obviously recognize the plight of another and take up their cause, but I don't think that claiming their identity or struggles as your own is of any benefit.

What do y'all think?

I think that everything is weaponized by a cross section of people nowadays - whether it's "appropriation" or "appreciation".

And the pattern I've found to the weaponization of any of these items tends to fall firmly into the peasant-thinker level of things and occasionally dips into some "elite class" who uses it to manipulate a peasant-revolt for whatever reason at the moment. I remember the girl in your example clearly and she is clearly a peasant-thinker relying on manipulation for perceived personal benefit xyz.

Most "normal" people can reasonably assign the difference between "appropriation" and "appreciation" and even then write it off because America is a "melting pot" within reason.

"Trans-racial" is one of the strangest things I've heard recently. "Trans-black" sounds like a trans person of Sub-Saharan African ancestry to me. So I don't even know what to say about that and this Dolezal individual.

I think this whole cultural appropriation thing is ridiculous. And I'm not just referring to regular cultural appreciation being misinterpreted. When I see articles about some Americans taking offense to Halloween costumes of all things, I just roll my eyes and want to tell those people to get a life.
"Dressing up as an Indian/Native American wearing feathers on his head is offensive", they'll say. But no one has an issue with non-American kids dressing up as Cowboys, right? I dressed up as a Cowboy when I was a kid for Carnaval one time. Was that cultural appropriation and disrespect? :roll:

No, because not all cowboys back then were white.

And your reaction is rightfully so.

But again, I point the conversation to the direction that people want to avoid because it shines a light on a reality that is harder to fight - and that reality is are they actually "offended" or is "opportunity XYZ" presenting itself through their being "offended".

Remember in High School that kid you knew who was "just a kid" one year and came back the next year with an "identity" - like he went from being straight laced to "mohawk punk kid"? We accept that because kids search for themselves.

But there is a huge cross section of society who "assert who they are" as conflict rather than in production. And when you are societies peasants who don't actually produce anything, the best assertion you have is some kind of self-bolstering "who I am" demand on the rest of the public.

These people are disingenuous liars. Don't believe them.

OK, but so what? No one cares if a European cosplayer dresses up as a Japanese video game or anime character. Just like black people should be "allowed" to cosplay as Peter Pan or Superman if they want to. We can only dress up or cosplay as people and characters from our own race? :roll:

Also, you say that as if White is a culture. People could just accuse you of appropriating American culture by doing so or something. Well, I can't say I've ever seen an American taking offense to foreigners trying to emulate American culture.

I've never agreed with the whole "race is a social construct" thing.

I think its obvious that race is a biological reality. I think people being uncomfortable with that is concerning.

I would also feel honoured if a white person wore my culture's traditional dresses, even despite Britain's past colonial rule over the Indian Subcontinent.

I kind of was that kid. I was a boring looking fellow one day and the next one I came to school with a metal t-shirt and it became a regular thing for me. One day I was just "that guy" and then I was suddenly "the metalhead" haha

Yeah, I agree.

There are definitely genetic differences across humans in the world. But whether that makes us different races or not is more complicated. You see, in many languages, such as Portuguese and German, the word race(raça/rasse) primarily means "breed", which is something we use to talk about cats and dogs. And that's possibly the case in some other European languages as well. And with German speaking countries and regions in particular, there's that whole thing about racism being used in the 1st half of the 20th century for... you know. So it's a sensitive issue.

As for the whole social construct thing... I feel like some people are rewriting history when they say that. Like when they say that Italian and Irish people weren't considered White in the US until 1970 or something. If that was the case, then they would not have been allowed to immigrate to the US many decades before that. Not to mention they weren't subject to Jim Crow-like laws and slavery. I doubt anyone ever told an Italian or an Irish guy fresh off the boat that he had to use a different bathroom than your average White American. No way they used the fountains for black people come on :lol:

Seems like a vocal minority of people make this claim about many Europeans not having been white until recently because they can't grasp the fact that white people can also be victims of bigotry and that two people of the same "race" can be prejudiced against each other. There's lots of different European cultures and nations. Same goes for Sub-Saharan African ones. A Frenchman hating Germans is just xenophobia. For some reason some people nowadays interpret that as French people considering Germans a different race and not White like them, which is absolute nonsense. :roll:

Just like the English always considered the Irish White. They just didn't care about them having the same skin colour/tone as them and treated them like trash, anyway. It's like some people forget that Europe was highly nationalistic and constantly at war among itself until the end of WW2.

It's tricky, but I think there's a difference between appreciating a culture and pretending to be part of it. Respecting and supporting is cool, but claiming an identity you're not born into isn't right.

I agree completely. I think it's pretty obvious that "ghetto parties" held by college fraternities were in very poor taste, but someone dressing up in another culture's garb in a respectful way or partaking in their rituals or social practices, in a "when in Rome, do as the Romans do"-type of way should be encouraged, I feel. We should celebrate the cool, unique things that different cultures do.

There's a subculture in Japan called "gyaru" where chicks get tans & dye their hair blonde, wear tons of accessories, rhinestones, fake eyelashes, make-up, that is sort of both a parody of & homage to western beauty standards (they will sometimes even use white eye-liner to make their eyes appear larger). Also, there is a decently sized hip-hop movement there, which incorporates a greater appreciation for African American fashion/music culture overall, the result being you'll see Japanese people with braided hair & the like.

I've seen a lot of Americans get mad at it whenever a reel of either demographic shows up on Instagram, for example.

I think I know what you're talking about. Japanese girls with tanned skin and dyed blonde hair. I've seen that before.

First time I hear of Americans taking offense to it, but I guess I'm not surprised. I mean, in the current age of social media there's always going to be someone out there getting offended over something. But it's probably just a loud minority online that overlaps with the same people who usually take offense to everything.

I'm not sure what specifically catalyzed your saying this, but I think the fact that this isn't also obvious to everyone even at a 5th grade level is more evidence of the peasant-thinker construct that I routinely illustrate to make the points about social realities.

Culture is a social (and sometimes regional) construct. Race isn't a construct - it's a measurable biological truth.

But let me use our conversation for another illustration - somewhere, even here on this forum, someone would twist your words and mine into an evaluation of 'race' rather than simply a perceptual definition. And see... that's key to the reality of people's bull $#!(, right there. That inevitably someone will force change in meaning on the nature of your comment and mine.

I was about to bring it full circle and illustrate the same thing. But you encapsulated it succinctly and nicely here.

Didn't recall her much until that old Dr. Phil ep happened to be on this morning and went "Ooh, right..."

"Race is a social construct." "...is not biological." What? I feel like she thinks race and culture are the same.

It's one thing to wish you were different than you are, but actually denying what (or who) you came from and lie about something like that is ridiculous. And trying to own the history and struggles of people you didn't grow up facing like them and could, whether she was doing it or not, turn around and literally in a split second say you're white again when it's convenient is really messed up.

As far as any parallels to transgender people goes... Generally I feel it easier to give them a pass. They far more commonly (at least from what I've seen of people online) do not seem to dismiss what they are and what they were born as. (Even if other people may feel a bit put off by their need to say it... but if they're to be honest, then damned if they do and damned if they don't, I guess?) They should not deny that birth gender is biological via those chromosomes a person ends up with. Brain development, on the other hand, and however that wiring happens is more of a grey area. If that is a factor, then that part would actually be a biological factor? And men and women aren't seperate subgroups that went without contact for thousands of years, as different races did to develop into what we are, the gender thing and the brain chemistry is so much closer and a coin flip. Both genders get genetics and traits from both parents, so that is so much more meshed together as far as genetics go. Race, unlike what that crazy woman may want to believe, can not be a coin flip without having those genetics.

Speaking as a woman, from a social standpoint, I do not feel taken from when someone born male is living as a woman. It doesn't feel like any kind of appropriation, because there is no collective woman culture anyone is trying to take from. People are more inclined to dismiss or shrug off struggles of women through history, it isn't glorified the way the struggles of a minority race is, so it has never seemed to be a motivation behind trans people, vs those like this woman insisting she's black.

Not judging, as I don't really care and it's on them to figure out, but a closer parallel is probably actually those who insist they're "gender fluid" and can switch identity on a whim, like this so-called "trans-racial" woman can do. (In contrast, I can give a pass to those transgender people who are fully committed to the point of not having the option of going back.)

Edit: I suppose people could point to controversies in sports as something adjacent to appropriating spots intended for women. To be honest though, I couldn't care less about sports and feel fine leaving that up to those teams, etc to sort out.