None of that required Dolezal to be black. In fact, civil rights battles benefit from the support of white allies. When I was in high school, my black history teacher was a white woman who pushed us to dispatch propaganda and seek truth. We learned that skin color wasn’t a measure of commitment. She was so in tune with her students – on a campus where almost every student was black- that lack of melanin never mattered. Her honesty did. The long-running lie is the most craven part of Dolezal’s charade.
Sandy Banks, Los Angeles Times, June 16, 2015
Rachel Dolezal recently resigned from being the president of the NAACP’s Spokane, Washington chapter, after her own parents disclosed she is Caucasian by birth, unlike her self-assertion, “I identify as Black.” She was elected to head the NAACP’s Spokane chapter in Nov. 2014, after James Wilburn expressed hope that the chapter can be revitalized, given inactive committees.
It was as if James Wilburn was hoping for a light to shed the darkness from this organization. But the justification of voting her into office has cast more darkness on this illustrious group, and now part of America’s national conversations.
Sandy Banks wrote in the Los Angeles Times that “Dolezal had the style right, but the substance was wrong. Seriously wrong,” and her essay was entitled “Dolezal’s black deception.”
What are the lessons that we can learn from “Dolezal’s charade”?
Dolezal, carefully constructed her identity as an “authority” on Blacks, including leading teach-ins in Spokane. Her popularity grew since her Nov. 2014 election to head the NAACP and became a member of the Police Oversight Committee, voted by the city council. Her fabricated identity was revealed when The Couer d’ Alene Press in Idaho published an interview with her birth parents, Ruth Anne and Larry Dolezal, that she is actually Caucasian at birth, with photos of her as a blonde young woman. Her mother, Ruth Anne Dolezal of Troy, Mont. told People Magazine, “She’s not being rational.”
So, what is the fuss about?
Enrique, my husband, offered this critique, “What is the harm in overreaching as an African-American ally? After all, even the NAACP said that they have had whites before in leadership?”
To which I said, “Yes, the organization has collective wisdom, perhaps a higher level than a single individual.” He then questioned the media frenzy, which surrounded this controversy, without illuminating identity, but more precisely, validating the “social construct” of racial categories of White and Black races. He suggested, “Why not look at her track record?”
But as we both question the media’s treatment of this topic, must we not challenge our own biases?
The Spokesman-Review, based in Spokane, quoted Michelle Nealy, a spokeswoman for the national chapter in Baltimore, Md.: ”One’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership. For 106 years, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has held a long and proud tradition of receiving support from people of all faiths, races, colors and creeds. NAACP Spokane Washington Branch President Rachel Dolezal is enduring a legal issue with her family, and we respect her privacy in this matter.”
But the city council was perturbed and cited instances of Dolezal’s inability to keep police oversight issues confidential, and the city council voted to remove her, as part of their Police Oversight Committee.
Deception is not colored black, nor white, it is unethical
In Dolezal’s case, she did not reveal a material trait that she has, that of being born to Caucasian parents, Ruth Anne and Larry Dolezal, which is deception. In the legal world, fraud is defined as the omission of a material fact or highlighting something inconsequential as significant.
Rachel Dolezal went on national television with Samantha Guthrie of NBC News to question who has witnessed her birth, when her birth certificate was issued a month and a half later?
While it is commonplace now to change one’s graying hair to different colors, with some Pinays becoming blondes for months or years, her “makeover” did not stop at hair. She assumed a space in the African –American community as one of them, voted in as one of their leaders, without revealing who she was, justifying it as she was not asked about her race. When asked now by Samantha Guthrie, she responded elusively, “I identify as black.”
I was educated by my gay son, Carlo, about the distinction of being a parent of a gay son and that of being gay. He told me I am an ally because my identity is not gay, and my experiences do not include being discriminated as a gay person, nor do I have that as part of my core personal identity.
Identity is fluid, amorphous and liquid
It is interesting to have two philosophers, Enrique and Kenneth, share perspectives on identities, one summer evening at dinner. Enrique has a doctorate in philosophy at UCLA and taught at UCLA and Cal State Northridge, while Kenneth Masong, a priest, has a doctorate in philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, taught at Ateneo, and wrote a book, Becoming-Religion, now published by UST Press.
We were eating with a group of friends when their perspectives on identity converged, perhaps, a result of common authors which they have studied and critiqued.
Enrique described, “identity as fluid and amorphous” while Kenneth, another philosopher, used these words, “identity is liquid” including a self-reflective question: “Was I the same Kenneth of 10 years ago to the Kenneth now? I would say not. But is the Kenneth now so fundamentally different from that of ten years ago. Again, there lies the accommodation, of what is and what is not. Identity is liquid.”
Both philosophers described identities as an evolving dynamic, influenced, and changed by our circumstances, a result of our presence and interaction with our environment.
But what did Rachel Dolezal do? She became more than a self-described ally to Blacks. She was not transparent about who she really is, instead assumed an alternate identity as a Black character, perhaps, with presumably Black experiences, including eight hate crimes perpetrated on her bio, as if a badge of honor to a Black person. She led the Black community in Spokane in a teach-in.
It was implying to the world that she has been part of those victimized by police, who are killing unarmed teenagers, without revealing who she truly is: a white person of privilege. It was a breach of public trust from a person who became part of a century-old organization that is quite respected.
Latoya Peterson, a writer, shared her views on Fusion.net: “But it is about a deep, cultural understanding – I assume if a black woman is on a seat of authority, she’s already grappled with the mandate to life as you climb, she already knows the half as good/twice as far truism. You know what it is? It’s a colonizer mindset. What I see, I am entitled to. I think those of us who are black are taught pride in the face of discrimination, and go through at least some process of reckoning to understand who we are in America and how that shapes us. And the spaces that came out of that, be it the NAACP or Essence, were confronting this culture, these dominant narratives of whiteness, and challenging them. To have a person who hasn’t walked that kind of path, and understood on a deep level, why the fight has to continue is something that honestly, could imperil these institutions.”
Was Rachel Dolezal being non-racist in switching identities, to embrace folks of color as now part of her inborn culture? That indeed, we are all part Black, part White, part Asian, part Latino, and therefore, part of the human race?
Danielle Henderson, another writer’s perspective on Fusion.net, has this to say: “And Dolezal, too, in a way — she wasn’t just black, she was peak blackness. A professor. President of the NAACP. She only played with blackness in a way that elevated her status. We have so few pathways to respectability as black women, and she co-opted all of them.”
I believe the NAACP has been inclusive in its choice of leaders, over its century of existence. It continues a tradition that the civil rights movement was more than a Black experience– that it was led by majority Blacks, and supported by Whites as allies, with Asians, like Grace Lee Boggs, and even Latinos, to form a movement of enlightened Americans.
What gives me hope in America is we are now openly discussing what are these social constructs, what are identities, including a show called “Your face sounds familiar” of Pinoy and Pinay performers impersonating singing personalities, including Iggy Azalea.
In the mind of writer Danielle Henderson, “Iggy Azalea comes to mind here, too—she constantly talks about her love of rap while denigrating the culture that created it. It’s a very strange cultural blind spot.” While Latoya Peterson asserts, “To me, what’s fascinating about all this is how it shows that race, racism, and racial identity are such convoluted topics. Rachel Dolezal is ridiculous, right? But it’s only because her background didn’t match. If she looked the way she did (tanning, blonde dreads and all) and had at least one parent that [identified] as black, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Whereas someone else, like say, our current President, can look black, and have a black parent, and identify as black, and experience the type of discrimination that black men experience in America and still have people both (1) deny his blackness and (2) deny his right to self-identify.”
But what is even more fascinating is Caitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce Jenner, who crosses gender boundaries, and assumes a new female identity, even if her biological sexual features are male.
“Life is a journey towards meaningful existence. Holiness is the realization that the journey itself is at the heart of becoming Divine. This is becoming-religious, and when the journey is a journey of togetherness towards The Harmony of Harmonies, the sojourn of all is Becoming-Religion,” wrote Fr. Kenneth Masong.
I believe if we are in alignment with our innate divine, we become what God has meant us to be, growing as sources of light.
Happy Father’s and Grandfather’s day to all AJ readers, who helped give birth and raise children on this earth!
I am grateful to God, my creator and my father, Eleazar, who was called “Christmas,” a helpful, generous, dedicated and compassionate man, a gardener of many souls and sweet fruits. Oh how I wish we are in conversation today!