Rachel Dolezal finally breaks her silence. Rachel Dolezal says she identifies herself as black. She had to step down from head of the Spokane, Washington branch of the NAACP after her birth parents called her out publicly as a fraud. Rachel said that she started identifying as black around the age of 5. She says that she did not try to deceive people and some of the discussion about her has been “viciously inhumane.” I am forced to agree. In a world were people can change their gender and make a show out of it, why can’t someone identify as another race? Even Jeb Bush once identified his self as Latin American on a voter card in Miami.
I really don’t see why they’re in such a rush to whitewash some of the work I have done, who I am, how I have identified. “It’s more complex than being true or false” ~Rachel Dolezal
Rachel was not only forced to question her identify all over again. She also lost multiple positions. She was an African studies instructor at a local university and a freelance newspaper columnist. The city Ethics Commission is also doing an investigation on her. I feel for her. That said, she was in the wrong for misleading people about her race. Also Dolezal sued Howard University in 2002 for discriminating against her for being white and has stated in the past that she was the victim of racial hatred in the heavily white region. That racial tension might stem from her “acting” black. Black Twitter had a field day with “#Ask Rachel” trending for a little while. The hashtag was basically a stereotypical how black are you quiz. Needless to say if you know me, you know I missed a lot of the questions. On the positive side of things this story had the whole world is engaging in meaningful conversation about the idea of transracial.