Can you fully identify with a race that you weren’t born as? Rachel Dolezal, former President of the Spokane, Washington chapter of the NAACP claims that you can, and she has done so herself. Dolezal resigned from her post on Monday, June 16th after her Caucasian parents outed her as a white woman pretending to be a black woman. After much fierce criticism, Dolezal still maintains that she is a black woman.
Dolezal uses unknown agents to color her light skin and hair pieces that mimic hairstyles traditionally worn by black women such as dreadlocks, braids, and a curly fro. Dolezal claims that her racial identity does not match the one she was born with; this phenomenon has been incorrectly termed as “transracial.” Transracial actually defines children who were adopted by parents of a different race, so Dolezal’s black siblings are transracial adoptees.
Some argue that identifying as trangender and associating oneself with a race that is not one’s own are the same practices; since many support Caitlyn Jenner, why can’t Rachel Dolezal be accepted too? While it is true that both race and gender are social constructs, race is passed on from parent to child, but gender is not. Race relates to ancestry, family traditions, and history of a people. Race is not determined by a culture that you have an affinity to, but in the United States, race is a lived experience. Race is the discriminatory practice of red-lining. Race is the conversation that black parents have with their pre-teenage sons and daughters about how to stay alive when in an encounter with a police officer. Race is mass incarceration. Race is Trayvon Martin, Rekia Boyd, Mike Brown, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, and more. These experiences are the unglamorous pieces in the definition of black or African-American that Dolezal, a white woman, hasn’t suffered.
Dolezal can appear as a black woman when she wants, but she also has the ability to shed her wigs and wash off the make-up to show her white skin and blond hair, and that is a privilege. Black people cannot appear to be white physically as easily as Dolezal appeared to be black or bi-racial.
Some have said that no one criticizes black women for straightening their hair like white women or black people who do not speak with Ebonics; these practices stem from the psychological damage that slavery and colonization by whites has done. Straight hair and light skin has been held up as the ideal for beauty in the United States and in various communities around the world. Black women have been sent the message that their curl pattern is not beautiful because for decades straight-haired, white women have adorned magazine covers (though that trend is rapidly changing). Even at the 2015 Oscars, Giuliana Rancic commented on Zendaya Coleman who wore dreadlocks: “I feel like she smells of patchuouli oil…yeah, maybe weed.” Moreover, blacks who speak with Ebonics are relegated as “ghetto” and “uneducated.” With the white power structure dictating what is an acceptable physical appearance and way to speak, of course those who do not fit these various standards try to belong.
Dolezal’s case is complex because it is hard to understand why a white person would want to take on completely a black identity because of the undue struggles that black people face. Historically, black women with very light skin who could pass as white, adopted a white identity and lived as white women; however, this practice was prevalent post-slavery as blacks continued to face discrimination. Dolezal isn’t “passing” out of necessity, but she is doing it by desire. The idea that Dolezal doesn’t need to pass as black to seek advancement in quality of life calls in notions of her wearing a modern-day black face.
Dolezal did do a lot of good during her tenure as president. For example, she is credited with reinvigorating the Spokane chapter and engaging in human rights activism. As the NAACP stated, “One’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership… we encourage Americans of all stripes to become members and serve as leaders in our organization.” Thus, Dolezal could’ve done her advocacy work as a white woman.
While Dolezal is wrong for impersonating black women, her actions sparked a national conversation on what race actually means.For the past year, as a nation, we’ve spoken about police brutality toward black boys and girls and protested in the name of the ill-fated victims, but we haven’t addressed the underlying question of, “what is race?” Rachel Dolezal has shown us how she defines race, and I’ve explained that race is a lived experience, how would you denote ‘race’?
See Matt Lauer’s interview with Rachel Dolezal after her scandal: