Don't Gotta Be Drunk to Say It

Sip 23: Rachel Dolezal

For all my readers who aren't keeping up with the Jones, Rachel Dolezal is a white woman whom for the past several years has pretended to be black and has even gained a seat as president in the NAACP's Spokane Chapter of Washington. (I'm going to go ahead and add a picture for this Sip).

Recently, she was outed by her parents as actually being white (much to her humility and frustration). She has a black husband and has adopted two black children. Her immediate family consisted of two black boys her parents adopted into her family. I'm not here to talk about her as a person but if you're interested in her please go ahead and research her. I know I have so I'm not ignorant to her situation. However, the purpose of my Sip is to talk about why she's detrimental.

Rachel Dolezal represents the appropriation of another culture for her own benefit. This is something a lot of white people get away with in America, because duh, white privilege. Honestly, just looking at her disgusts me and I'm trying to be professional with this Sip but it's so hard.

There are black women praising her for her actions and I'm so appalled by this. Rachel Dolezal is doing the reverse of something that black people wished they could do in the past. Does she realize it was a blessing if any black person could pass for white before, during and after slavery? It meant they could have an easier life, that they could possibly be married to someone white and not have to constantly look over their shoulder.

What is the reason for her to surround herself with a posse of black people? She wants to be black? Why? The NAACP doesn't dictate what race their members are.

She makes me so mad because she can put a kinky haired wig on, get a two dollar tan and call herself black. Me? I have to live with my skin. I have to live with my kinky hair. As a person with dreadlocks I have to realize that it will drastically reduce my chances of being hired because I look dirty and unkept. Does she realize that the history of black hair is not as straight as hers? Does she realize that black woman had to burn their hair straight to get a job because our natural kinks and curls weren't beautiful but animalistic, while curling the hair of the same white people who told them they couldn't be curly? Does she realize that wearing dreadlocks and braids is a mockery of black people? Black people who used that as a method in the 70s and 90s as a way to try and get a grasp back onto their island and African roots? Does she understand the spiritual meaning behind dreadlocks in the African and Caribbean culture?

I also find it interesting that she chose to be a light skinned black woman. It's no secret that within the black community there's an on-going battle of light skinned vs. dark skinned. What most people don't realize is that this is stemmed from the reality of light skinned black people being treated better than dark skinned people, and they still are, which brings into question how she decided what "color" to play. Did she chose a person of mixed heritage because it easier for her as a white woman to do? Did she see the value in being a lighter "Sister?" I mean, she does have a degree in African studies (eyeroll). Or did she think that being dark skinned would be going to far?

Even if she realized all these things, the appropriation done by Rachel serves as an example of what white people can do just because they're white and I don't like it. I don't care if she "sympathizes" or "empathizes" or whatever with black people (MY people), she is a caricature of her patheticness and not of my blackness.