This is such a mess. I guess it is very nice that she wants to identify as black. But she has the option, like myself, of retreating to whiteness if the black experience proves to be too intense. Most African Americans do not have this option. They can not be mistaken for white. Nor masquerade as another ethnicity in order to enjoy the culture and community.
I am a huge fan of the products of African American culture. It is very hard not to be if you are a musician or someone who appreciates music. I also grew up in the deep south eating southern food which is very much a melange of African, indigenous and European ingredients and influences.
I myself am creole. But I am white enough that I have never had a single day of race oppression. I have never had a traffic stop turn into a ride downtown. I’ve never been denied entry to an establishment or shown a different rental unit based on my ethnicity.
I’ve gone to a lot of hip-hop shows, used to do sound engineering at them too. But in reality I am just a tourist.
However, I have never once tried to play act as a black person. That is equivalent, in my mind, to the minstrel shows, blackface vaudeville, and white people painted up as native americans. It trivializes the lives and experiences.
Rachel Dolezal is slumming it. And what is worse, she ridicules the NAACP and the work that similar NGOs do with her silly dress up games.
This pisses me off so much. I can’t imagine how I would feel if I was black and not just someone with black friends.