WA - Civil rights activist Rachel Dolezal pretending to be black, parents say #1

[Hope4More]

It sounds like her son has grown up to hold her values: that a little race deception might help him get ahead. She has raised a child to be a liar who manufactures "victimization" to avoid responsibility, however - her brother and son are still young. Hopefully Rachel will be imprisoned for mail fraud, and they can learn from better people.

I'm impressed with her biological son, actually. He's been taught since birth that his father is a wife and child abuser and that whites are bad, and he's watched his mother repeatedly claim hate crimes against herself AND him, and yet when he's been questioned by the police he has been entirely truthful that he wasn't threatened, worried, or scared.

Her brother? Sounds like he's taken another path, perhaps because RD is his only parental figure. RD's ex shares custody, so maybe his son is around sanity and truth 50% of the time. Maybe, in fact, that's why RD felt the need to manufacture another son, one more likely to fully reflect her own POV.

 

[otto]

I really want to get that done! So cool. I do identify with my ancestral roots but mostly because I'm second generation American and have been raised with the cultures of my parents. I suppose that would be the case if I were Amish, creole, African American or of another culture originating in America, as well.

I'm first generation Canadian. Culture comes from daily habits, such as whether there are linens and sterling at the lunch table, or a hotdog. Culture cannot be adopted, as in a "fad". You are born with the culture and habits of parents, and their parents, and their parents. You can't be eating hotdogs one day, and eating with linens and sterling the next, and pretend that the linen and sterling culture has been fully integrated and innately implanted (unlike anthropological classification/characteristics). Some things can't be re-invented and authenticated.

What culture is black: hotdogs like Snoop Dogg, or single mom like Obama? How do we differentiate between single mom issues and black skin issues? What exactly makes the black culture: resentment?

 

[gitana1]

An Opinion: I like the use of the term "Race Faker". Rachel, and certainly some others, would like the media to adopt "transracial" in relation to her opinion of what it is to be a black woman who is victimized. Rachel is trying to normalize a concept that makes no sense whatsoever. She wants people to believe that there is a black culture in the US that should be recognized as something unique. She is not interested in the Japanese culture, Mexican culture, European Culture, British Culture, and so on - only the black culture, as though it is more unique than all other cultures. It is only the black "culture" that is attacked with her hate mail fraud. Her position supports the idea that she can adopt black culture and claim to be a black victim of hate crime.

Black is not a culture. It is a race. Black people live all over the world, many of them having set sail even a couple of hundred years ago. They didn't all land in the US. If there was a "black culture", then wouldn't all the black people that landed in all parts of the world all still possess that culture? Which culture would that be: Obama black, or Snoop Dogg black?

Black is a race defined by anthropologists through classification of bone structure. Black skin and dark eyes are other characteristics of the black race. Caucasians and Mongoloids have their own classifications and characteristics. One cannot claim to be black after embracing black beliefs, history, art, and political journey.

Yes. Black is not a culture just as white is not a culture. However, there is certainly a black American culture, and Italian American culture, an Amish American culture, Mormon American culture, Geechee culture, Cajun culture, etc. Some are based on religion, ethnic heritage, geography, etc.

There are specific hallmarks of Black American culture which are widely known and studied. I believe that is the culture she claimed, no?

 

[Nova]

An Opinion: I like the use of the term "Race Faker". Rachel, and certainly some others, would like the media to adopt "transracial" in relation to her opinion of what it is to be a black woman who is victimized. Rachel is trying to normalize a concept that makes no sense whatsoever. She wants people to believe that there is a black culture in the US that should be recognized as something unique. She is not interested in the Japanese culture, Mexican culture, European Culture, British Culture, and so on - only the black culture, as though it is more unique than all other cultures. It is only the black "culture" that is attacked with her hate mail fraud. Her position supports the idea that she can adopt black culture and claim to be a black victim of hate crime.

Black is not a culture. It is a race. Black people live all over the world, many of them having set sail even a couple of hundred years ago. They didn't all land in the US. If there was a "black culture", then wouldn't all the black people that landed in all parts of the world all still possess that culture? Which culture would that be: Obama black, or Snoop Dogg black?

Black is a race defined by anthropologists through classification of bone structure. Black skin and dark eyes are other characteristics of the black race. Caucasians and Mongoloids have their own classifications and characteristics. One cannot claim to be black after embracing black beliefs, history, art, and political journey.

There IS a distinct American Black Culture (though, like any culture, it has many, varied characteristics and no person exhibits or identifies with all of them), no matter what you call it. And it is an incredibly rich culture when one compares its small number of members (relatively speaking) with its enormous contribution to the art, music and literature of the modern world.

Your ideas of race are hopelessly outdated; the consensus among Western anthropologists is that race is a "sociopolitical" concept rather than a biological fact. Source: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.

http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/race-finished


In other words, it's an idea we have, not a physical fact. Individuals within defined racial groups actually differ more than one group differs from another. And the concept is by no means the same in all places: some used to see three races, some five, some defined "black" one way and others another way. The terms for "race" and "ethnic group" are the same in everyday Spanish. A few decades ago you could find English-language writers talking about "the German race" and "the French race", though I don't know what English people are if not a combination of German and French. La Louve's discussion of her Cherokee ancestry above clearly illustrates how "race" is a social construction: she wasn't Cherokee; now she both is and isn't.

Of course people suffered and suffer very real consequences (or accrue unearned privilege) based on the color of their skin. But this doesn't make skin color biologically significant. We also form prejudices about people based on other cultural factors: dialect, fashion, manners, religious beliefs, education, etc. The only thing we all agree on is that RD isn't black.

But recognizing that region of origin contributes a small (6-7%) percentage of our DNA is one step toward recognizing that we are far more similar to people who look different than we once thought.

 

[Doghairrules]

BBM

Unbelievable and this must happen much more than I imagined.
This is one of those things that the male in our family that puts us on the roller coaster from hell has cited as his hate for this side of his family.
Just like I think would have happened with him, I think regardless Rachel would have had some other falling out with her family because she's always going to be a victim and never seems to take responsibility for her faults. In her eyes they must be so unworthy of her greatness.
I feel so bad for her parents, her son, and her brother that lives with her, among all others she has came across and played her game on.
Shouldn't she be packing her bags by now and moving to an area they hope hasn't heard of her antics by now?
JMO

Yep. I'm excited to see what race she is next! ;-)

 

[blue22]

Seems virtually any Black American or AA can truthfully, accurately say - their ancestors have a history of having been oppressed and subject to hardship by whites.
(Did my 4x-grandfather oppress your 4x-grandfather? Maybe, IDK. What about my 3x great-uncle oppressing your 3x great-uncle? Maybe, IDK. I know I am not oppressing you or visiting hardship on you because of your race, whatever it happens to be.
Seems virtually anyone can truthfully, accurately say - ancestors of Black Americans or AA have a history of having been oppressed and subject to hardship by whites.

Aside from Howard Uni scholarship, civic group, LE oversight board issues, etc. (which are not clear cut, jmo, for lack of info), over ~5? yrs her claims of being hate crime victim are far more disturbing - demanding LE time and tax $ to investigate her frivolous lies.

And that, Ms RD, is the problem I (and some other folks) see w your actions: filing false police reports about events that did not occur and for which you created bogus evidence. That is literally criminal. JM2cts, could be all wrong.

Yes, but she's not black...so...

 

[Nova]

I'm first generation Canadian. Culture comes from daily habits, such as whether there are linens and sterling at the lunch table, or a hotdog. Culture cannot be adopted, as in a "fad". You are born with the culture and habits of parents, and their parents, and their parents. You can't be eating hotdogs one day, and eating with linens and sterling the next, and pretend that the linen and sterling culture has been fully integrated and innately implanted (unlike anthropological classification/characteristics). Some things can't be re-invented and authenticated.

What culture is black: hotdogs like Snoop Dogg, or single mom like Obama? How do we differentiate between single mom issues and black skin issues? What exactly makes the black culture: resentment?

Culture CAN be adopted. Many immigrants have done so, though you are right that new cultural aspects don't become immediately ingrained, which accounts for some of the friction between those who consider themselves "native" and those who are newly arrived.

What makes black culture? Jazz; blues; the shimmy and the shuffle; Fats Waller and Eubie Blake; the jitterbug and the cakewalk; tap dancing; rap and hip hop; Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright; Toni Morrison; W.E.B. DuBois; Motown and R&B; James Brown and Aretha Franklin; Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes; Dr. Martin Luthor King, Jr.; Lena Horne and Cab Calloway; audience participation in theater and film; gospel and soul; "Dyn-o-mite!" and "Wha' chew talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

And even older than the above: the A.M.E. church!

And, yes, a long, sad history of oppression and suspicion directed at even the most successful African-Americans.

But unlike a biological classification, a culture CAN be changed, meaning we can hope to end this cycle of brutality and butchery against African-Americans.

 

[Hope4More]

My background is entirely white and English going back to the Mayflower on one side, and entirely white and English on the other going back 150 years, with only the slightest trace of Welsh thrown in, no doubt due to a lone renegade ancestor who was bored to tears.

My maternal grandmother, raised with extreme race and class privilege, at last broke that long culturally bleak spell by eloping with the family's Dutch gardener, who OMG was a foreigner!! Her family disowned her, she hitchhiked to Canada with her beloved, being picked up by men driving Model T Fords, then hopped freight trains across Canada until she at last departed for Europe by steamer, cargo-cattle class. Reverse migration.

Her rebellion opened the flood gates- all her children married non-English spouses- Polish, German, and another OMG, Russian- Jewish! My generation went one step further and married black as well as white, and a UN of nationalities.

I call that progress, but sadly there is only a one generation buffer between my generation and that endless sea of English white ancestors. I try to break tradition by making lasagna for Christmas instead of figgy pudding, but we are who we are. Unless we're special like RD, anyway.

 

[Nova]

Hope4More, I didn't taste lasagna until I was 14-years-old! My working class WASP/Scottish grandparents considered spaghetti and, yes, even hot dogs too spicy! But Lord knows they knew what to do with potato salad!

If I'd known about the macaroni-and-cheese and other types of "soul food", I might have been "trans-racial" myself.

 

[Hope4More]

Hope4More, I didn't taste lasagna until I was 14-years-old! My working class WASP/Scottish grandparents considered spaghetti and, yes, even hot dogs too spicy! But Lord knows they knew what to do with potato salad!

If I'd known about the macaroni-and-cheese and other types of "soul food", I might have been "trans-racial" myself.

LOL...Though, hate to break this to you, but Mac and cheese doesn't count as soul food. And bland food? No offense to anyone here, but if the fare I experienced in North Dakota was representative of Scandinavian food, that cuisine wins first prize as taste-free.

 

[DEPUTYDAWG]

Hope and Nova, OMG what a way for me to end my reading for the night.
Light-heartedness, awesome.
We had smoked sausage tonight for dinner, and Mr DD demands Kraft mac and cheese to go with it. I can't make homemade mac and cheese, it must be out of the blue box. Hmmmm, wonder what his cultural makeup may be?

P.S. Wonder if reality is starting to hit ol' Rachel yet, or is she still on the nationwide tour?

 

[SophieRose]

Yep. I'm excited to see what race she is next! ;-)

That's her new reality show.

 

[Nova]

LOL...Though, hate to break this to you, but Mac and cheese doesn't count as soul food. And bland food? No offense to anyone here, but if the fare I experienced in North Dakota was representative of Scandinavian food, that cuisine wins first prize as taste-free.

Mac-and-cheese is soul food if you make it right! The Kraft Co. is not involved!

Sandinavian food bland? Apparently, you didn't try the lutevisk (made, I believe with rotting fish).

 

[La Louve]

Culture CAN be adopted. Many immigrants have done so, though you are right that new cultural aspects don't become immediately ingrained, which accounts for some of the friction between those who consider themselves "native" and those who are newly arrived.

What makes black culture? Jazz; blues; the shimmy and the shuffle; Fats Waller and Eubie Blake; the jitterbug and the cakewalk; tap dancing; rap and hip hop; Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright; Toni Morrison; W.E.B. DuBois; Motown and R&B; James Brown and Aretha Franklin; Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes; Dr. Martin Luthor King, Jr.; Lena Horne and Cab Calloway; audience participation in theater and film; gospel and soul; "Dyn-o-mite!" and "Wha' chew talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

And even older than the above: the A.M.E. church!

And, yes, a long, sad history of oppression and suspicion directed at even the most successful African-Americans.

But unlike a biological classification, a culture CAN be changed, meaning we can hope to end this cycle of brutality and butchery against African-Americans.

Speaking of adopting cultures, my mother's family is a good example. They were the ONLY non-Scandinavian family for literally 100 miles in the northwest corner of Minnesota where they settled in the late 1800s. But in just one generation they had given up any vestiges of their Russian and Czech heritage and had assimilated as best they could into the Scandinavian culture, mainly through food (ETA Swedish meatballs and lefse; no lutefisk!) and church.

But they weren't blonde haired and blue eyed and my mom says she always felt like she and her siblings got picked on because they didn't look like the other kids.

 

[La Louve]

That's her new reality show.

That or maybe a show involving hair makeovers. She apparently did her own hair and I think in one interview I saw she claimed to have her beautician's license.

 

[SophieRose]

Mac-and-cheese is soul food if you make it right! The Kraft Co. is not involved!

Sandinavian food bland? Apparently, you didn't try the lutevisk (made, I believe with rotting fish).

Yeah, mac-n-cheese is a staple side on soul food menus. One of my favorite foods. Years ago I made Patti Labelle's Over the Rainbow Macaroni and cheese, so good but heart attack city with four kinds of cheese and two cups of half-and-half.

 

[La Louve]

You make me think of two cases of family members who identified with a culture not heir own, since early childhood, that in adulthood, through ancestry searches, they actually found they were a part of!

My mom was one. All her life she felt a strong affinity for Spain and all things Spanish. She studied flamenco and moved to Spain where she met my dad. Years later her parents did their geneology and found they had Spanish roots via family on my grnadmother's side who emigrated to Holland centuries before!

RSBM

I love that story!

 

[La Louve]

Mac-and-cheese is soul food if you make it right! The Kraft Co. is not involved!

Sandinavian food bland? Apparently, you didn't try the lutevisk (made, I believe with rotting fish).

BBM
and lye
:sick:

 

[IBsleuthin]

I'm first generation Canadian. Culture comes from daily habits, such as whether there are linens and sterling at the lunch table, or a hotdog. Culture cannot be adopted, as in a "fad". You are born with the culture and habits of parents, and their parents, and their parents. You can't be eating hotdogs one day, and eating with linens and sterling the next, and pretend that the linen and sterling culture has been fully integrated and innately implanted (unlike anthropological classification/characteristics). Some things can't be re-invented and authenticated.

What culture is black: hotdogs like Snoop Dogg, or single mom like Obama? How do we differentiate between single mom issues and black skin issues? What exactly makes the black culture: resentment?

This is very well written and a philosophy I teach here in our house. I told my kids that the color of your skin means absolutely nothing as far as who the person is, how they behave. It's a cultural difference that catches our senses and often causes misunderstandings.

What is acceptable to one culture is not to another.

And example is the uninvited, 'drop-in' guest. In my culture that is considered highly rude. However, I moved here and this culture thinks it's highly rude NOT to just drop in if you are visiting the area. Totally unannounced, without a care in the world or thought to what that person might be doing.

I've struggled with it but as you say, something so ingrained is very difficult to change overnight.

 

[IBsleuthin]

I also think one of the wonderful things of the internet is that you cannot see the color of anyone. You have NO IDEA what color someone is or if they are in a wheelchair or some other handicap, whether they are rich or poor.

Often I think people freely chat with people online that they might not have otherwise even considered talking to if it were in person.

Who knew the internet would be the great equalizer?