Recently, Twitter exploded in a flurry over the fact that the current Spokane NAACP chapter president wasn’t in fact a black woman like she had been portraying for years but in fact a white woman in blackface. The news that Rachel Dolezal, a white woman, was called out by her own parents recently for portraying herself as black.
Dolezal’s parents, who live in Troy, MT, say Rachel has been deceiving people. They want people to know the truth. pic.twitter.com/sS3aiUwD0H
— Taylor Viydo (@KREMTaylor) June 11, 2015
This story, of course, opened a massive can of worms about race and interestingly enough, gender. There have been some arguing that if you can be transgender (and not identify with the gender you were assigned at birth), then you can also be transracial (and thus, identify as a race/ethnicity that you are not). This mindset is completely false however, especially considering that’s not what transracial means. But, as a white person, I’ll never ever be able to truly articulate everything that wrong in regards to identifying as a race you are not so here are so tweets and articles to read through.
Race isn’t gender. Just like apples aren’t tomatoes. Just like the moon isn’t lollipops. Just like you aren’t informed.
— BGD (@BlackGirlDanger) June 12, 2015
TRANSRACIAL IS NOT A THING. RACE IS SOCIAL CONSTRUCT CREATED ONLY TO CONQUER & OPPRESS. YOU CAN’T SWITCH RACES. THANK YOU.
— المثيرة للفوضى (@RomanKush) June 12, 2015
Transracial isn’t a thing my people.
— rell (@Awkward_Duck) June 12, 2015
THIS! Race =/= gender https://t.co/hehRoDY48R
— Jeanne (@fangirlJeanne) June 12, 2015
Gender is performance and a sense of self, but race is lived experience and it is NOT a costume.
— Sam Dylan Finch (@samdylanfinch) June 12, 2015
For those who still argue #RachelDolezal was just being “herself” pic.twitter.com/I2C9JaWy4P
— Spelled FUCK YOU (@YVEvil_Genius1) June 12, 2015
Yes…this is why so many of us are pissed off about Rachel’s charade. Black womanhood is not a game. https://t.co/xbcElyopo9
— Notorious BGIM (@blackgirlinmain) June 12, 2015
Race is MORE than some identity or feeling. RACE is a social, political, economic, & historical category w/in white supremacist hegemony.
— Shay GenderFuq Ture (@Pundit_AcadEMIC) June 12, 2015
If y’all can understand sex & gender are two different things, how do you not get race and gender are on different planets?
— Tina Vasquez (@TheTinaVasquez) June 12, 2015
What @Awkward_Duck said… pic.twitter.com/3riizQs7kk
— The Dream Defenders (@Dreamdefenders) June 12, 2015
- Dolezal going to and getting a full ride to Howard University
- Marfmellow – transgender v. transracial
- NewWaveFeminism – Dolezal pretending to be black
Articles:
- The White Skinned Elephant in the Room
- Rachel Dolezal is Nothing like Caitlyn Jenner and Here’s Why
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Rachel Dolezal and the Trouble with White Womanhood
- From this article:
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First and foremost, the trouble with Rachel Dolezal passing as a black woman is that by doing this she’s taken resources away from another person who is structurally situated as black (in addition to having phenotype that goes with that structural position). So, just looking back at her resume that we know of from 2007 – she got a full ride scholarship at historically black Howard University — an education that would have gone to an otherwise black person.
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Why Comparing Rachel Dolezal to Caitlyn Jenner is Detrimental to Both Trans and Racial Progress
- From this article:
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Transracial identity is a concept that allows white people to indulge in blackness as a commodity, without having to actually engage with every facet of what being black entails — discrimination, marginalization, oppression, and so on. It plays into racial stereotypes, and perpetuates the false idea that it is possible to “feel” a race. As a white woman, Dolezal retains her privilege; she can take out the box braids and strip off the self-tanner and navigate the world without the stigma tied to actually being black. Her connection to racial oppression is something she has complete control over, a costume she can put on — and take off — as she pleases.
- The Huge Problem With the Rachel Dolezal Scandal that Everyone Needs to Know
- One Tweet Perfectly Shows Everything Wrong With What Rachel Dolezal Did – In Her Own Words
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Transgender vs. Transracial: Caitlyn Jenner & Rachel Dolezal
- From this article:
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The concept of race as we understand it today developed as an extension of colonialism in tandem with the scientific revolution, where science was used to definitively classify people, rank them along variables such as beauty and intelligence, and solidify whiteness as the ideal in each category. The scientific community “objectively” placing white people at the top was a way to justify the maltreatment of non-white people further down the list, because white is the pinnacle of humanity and the further you differentiate away from that, the closer you are to beasts. That is where race comes from. Race isn’t even 400 years old and it’s a flexible standard by which to judge people.
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One last strike against anyone claiming to be transracial: It only works one way. Only white people can claim to be another race on the inside and then “perform” that race because race operates with white as the default. Racial classifications are based on deviations FROM whiteness. Rachel could pay a Black woman to do her hair and then pick up some NARS bronzer and say “Look! I’m not white!” I can’t straighten my hair and put chalk on my face while saying “Look! I’m not Black!” Transracial as a concept is another extension of white privilege, with those people – firmly situated at the top of society – experiencing an overwhelming need to identify with some other culture to validate their misplaced feelings of oppression because of their affinity for said culture.
- 8 Things White People Need to Understand about Race
- Transracial doesn’t mean what Rachel Dolezal thinks it means