Saturday, March 4, 2017

Rachel Dolezal Update: "I'm Not Going to Stoop, Apologize Or Grovel"

 Back in June 2015, I wrote about Rachel Dolezal, a NAACP leader in Washington State who liked to claim she was Black --
      Only she wasn't.



    After losing her NAACP job (interestingly enough, not because she wasn't black), Ms. Dolezal found herself in all sorts of dilemmas. And she kept insisting that since she was so much more in tune with the African-American experience, that made her Black. When that didn't work -- Black people and groups rejected her claims as a "wannabe" -- she switched gears and claimed that she was a sort-of transgender person... by nationality. (She makes sure to mention she's bisexual, as well. Not that she's trying to court the gay/transgender interest groups. Nope. Unh-unh.) "I feel like the idea of being trans-black would be much more accurate than 'I'm white,'" she said. "Because you know, I'm not white."

So what is she? 

Well, according to Ms. Dolezal, she's picked on, broke and near-homeless. White people don't like her -- and Black people don't, either. She just can't understand why either group would have problems with her actions. After all, she was never deceitful -- she just didn't tell the full truth. She can't find work, except in porn and reality shows. (Really?!?  Shades of Octomom.)

     Suddenly she's granting interviews left and right, and appearing on various television shows, moaning about her life circumstances.  Here's one, in case you're curious.  Here's another.   And another:



No regrets on all this, she says. And yes, she's still presenting herself as Black.





Here's the original interview that most news sources are quoting from. Interesting that Dolezal went to a BRITISH paper, The Guardian, instead of an American one, isn't it?

*Dolezal has acknowledged that she is "Caucasian biologically," but says she identifies as black.
*She explains to The Guardian that she "began to see the world through black eyes" as a teenager after her parents adopted four black children. Dolezal says she decided to be publicly black years later following a divorce.
*Dolezal maintains that she did nothing wrong. She also told The Guardian, “the only place that I feel understood and completely accepted is with my kids and my sister," and that she's been feeding her family with food stamps. Though a friend paid her rent this month, she expects to be homeless by next.

*Weirdly enough, she once sued her college for discriminating against her -- because she was white. (She says she did it because she would lose her apartment if she didn't -- and implies she was forced to do it, for the sake of a "black man and a black baby.")
 *In fact, the person interviewing Dolezal felt forced to comment: I have never read a more exhaustive encyclopaedia of outlandish injustice. In person, by contrast, she comes across as highly credible, and her central claim that a lie can be more honest than a biological “truth” has an internal logic. I don’t think Dolezal deliberately or knowingly lies. What she calls her “creative non-fiction” does, though, make me uneasy. She has admitted to fabricating needless deceits in the past – she once claimed to have been born in a tepee – which makes me worry that her subjective concept of truth matters more to her than veracity.

Ouch.

*Dolezal has a new baby -- and a new African name. But she's going by Dolezal for now, because:

     She has a new book, In Full Color, coming out in late March. (With a ghostwriter. True to form, she points out that 30 publishers rejected it before someone had the courage -- the courage, I tell you -- to publish it.  Throw shoulders back and look defiantly into the camera at this point.)

I wonder if that's why she's suddenly granting all these interviews...

As my dad would say sarcastically:  "Ya think?!?"




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