I have kept quiet on the Rachel Dolzeal issue because I wanted to gather my thoughts. Now I am ready to offer my take:
RACHEL DOLZEAL REVEALS THE PROBLEMATIC NATURE OF THE QUANTIFICATION OF RACE.
When I talk about the quantification of race, I'm talking about two central questions:
1. How Black are you?
2. How Black enough do you have to be in order to be considered Black?
Now here are some of the problems that I see when it comes to Rachel Dolzeal.
Rachel was born with white privilege. She grew up phenotypically white and maintained the privileges of having white skin and coming from white parents. She did not experience the racial experience of not having white privilege. All people of color have that shared universal experience of being considered an "other" purely on the basis of the color of their skin. Along with the othering comes the discrimination and prejudices associated with having a different skin tone that isn't white. Rachel Dolzeal NEVER experienced that. She then chose to racially associated herself as Black. Race is not something that you can step into or out of. Just because she teaches courses related to the African American experience doesn't mean that she can authentically speak to the lived experience of being a Black person. She can speak of it from an abstract or hypothetical but not from a concrete experience. Also, I find it extremely problematic that she sued Howard University because she feels that she was discriminated for being White. Which are you Rachel? You can't be Black when its convenient and then retreat back to White privilege. Black people CAN NEVER do that. Therefore, Rachel Dolzeal, YOU ARE NOT BLACK.
Another huge problem that I am seeing is that Rachel's voice is now being considered more so than African American women who have lived the Black experience from birth. Who the fuck is she to tell any Black person what it means to be Black. Also, just because she has done work on behalf of the Black community through her role as President of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP does not make her an authority on the Black experience or make her more Black than others. I really find it appalling when Black men such as Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Don Cheadle, and others cosign her because of her work. Why are they not elevating the voices of Black women who are doing the same racial justice work AND can speak truth to their own power through their lived experience as a Black person. They and those who point out Dolzeal's racial work as a proxy for the lived experience of Black people are contributing to the minimization of black lives.
Now on the lfip side what this exposes for me are the two central questions that I posed at the beginning:
How Black Are You?
This has been a questions that we as a society have addressed incorrectly in so many ways. From the onset, it was the One Drop Rule, where if you have one relative from the African Diaspora, you were considered black. Then it was how do you appear? From this, we got the Paper Bag Test, where if your skin was lighter or darker than the color of a brown paper bag you were subject to some form of discrmination. Then it was how do you talk? From this, we got the notion of "Talking White" where if you did not speak in Ebonics, you were considered to be engaging in Whiteness. Then it was what activities you engage in? From this, we got the policing and coding of certain activities as being participating in whiteness and other being coded as engaging in Blackness. We have been policing and quantifying the notion of Race for a long time and we collectively as a society have also bought into that quantification. That buying into that quantification leads to the other question of How Black does anyone have to be in order to be considered Black enough?
Personal Experience
I have personally experienced this throughout my entire life. I have been told that I am not Black enough by White and Black people. According to the One Drop Rule, I would be considered Black because both of my parents are Black. From the Paper Bag Test, I would be considered Black because my skin is darker than a paper bag. From the talking test, I fail and have been accused of Talking White. From the activities test, I have been accused of acting White because I prefer theatre over sports. However, none of these tests can attest to my lived experience as a Black Gay Man. I have been called a Nigger just because of the color of my skin. I have experienced my intelligence being called in to question due to my race. I have to worry about when I walk out my door that I will be considered dangerous simply because I am Black. All of this comes from my authentic lived experience and not from an abstract or cultural association. LIVED EXPERIENCE.
We need to elevate the lived experience of Black people overall, but more importantly of those Black people who are at the intersections, specifically Black Women and Black Transpeople. We need to STOP THE USAGE OF THE WORD TRANSRACIAL. You cannot step into or out of Race. Gender is a different socially constructed construct and therefore should not be conflated with Race. It is a disservice and disrespectful to the transgender community by even suggesting that Rachel Dolzeal is similar to the experience of transpeople. SHE IS NOT. Also, we need to not give this woman any more attention. I am calling on the media to not give her any more airtime. She does not need a reality show. She does not need a platform to spread her lies. Instead, elevate the voices of those who have truly lived the experience of being Black in America. Blackness is not a monolith, but it does come from an authentic lived experience and not from lies. Stop devaluating the lives of Black people by elevating a fraud.
Blackness is not a monolith, but it does come from an authentic lived experience and not from lies.
Yours always,
The BGM
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