Rachel Dolezal, former president of the NAACP's Spokane, Washington chapter, has sparked a media firestorm and heated public discourse about racial identity. Rachel claimed to be of mixed race, specifically identifying herself as African-American, Native American, and white for the past decade, until her parents, both white, outed her last week.
"It's very sad that Rachel has not just been herself,” said her mother Ruthanne Dolezal in The Spokesman Review. “Her effectiveness in the causes of the African-American community would have been so much more viable, and she would have been more effective if she had just been honest with everybody.”
On June 15, Rachel resigned from her post as the leader of the NAACP's Spokane chapter, and people have been demanding answers about who she really is. This morning, Rachel broke her silence in an interview with Matt Lauer on The Today Show, saying that she "identified" as black and calling the matter of her race "complex." Watch the full interview below:
Here, three experts weigh in on what could have sparked Rachel's desire to be a race other than her own.
Passing and Privilege
Even though Rachel is white, according to her family, she passed as mixed race with flying colors. "Passing, or trying to portray yourself as a difference race, is historical,” says Elizabeth Desnoyers-Colas, Ph.D., an associate professor of communication at Armstrong State University. “Usually African-Americans have done it as a way to remove themselves completely from their race, receive economic benefits, and take themselves out of a bad situation." Black people often try to pass as white to escape from discrimination, but it's much rarer that passing would happen the other way around.
Thanks to #RachelDolezal I now feel comfortable coming out as trans rich (a rich person living in a poor person's body) thank you
— Siobhan Thompson (@vornietom) June 13, 2015
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One thing that is causing so much controversy is that Rachel (allegedly) made herself up to be a light-skinned woman of color. The black community has a long history of colorism, or valuing lighter skin tones more than darker ones. "This mentality has been passed down through the ages,” says Desnoyers-Colas. “In slavery times, a light-skinned person was usually descended from the master or the master's relative, and they worked inside the house. Darker slaves worked out in the field."
Although that iteration of slavery's been banished, reverence for lighter skin colors remains, especially in the black community. "I find it disingenuous that she decided to tan not to be a darker-skinned black person, but to be just light enough to be considered black,” says Desnoyers-Colas. “All she's doing is pulling back the scab of old wounds of colorism."
Beyond colorism, some people are claiming Rachel's skin-darkening is basically blackface.
Stop defend-ing a white woman in blackface. You wouldn't defend a white man in blackface. That should end the conversation. #RachelDolezal
— Imani Gandy (@AngryBlackLady) June 16, 2015
Rachel denies any blackface accusations. "I have a huge issue with blackface," she said on The Today Show. "This is not some freak The Birth of a Nation mockery blackface performance. This is on a very real, connected level, how I've actually had to go there with the experience." She went on to explain that her experience as a black woman was fully solidified when she got full custody of one of her adopted brothers, Izaiah, whom she now calls her son.
In response to this whole debate, the NAACP has explained that "one’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership." Rachel being white seemingly wouldn't have been an issue for people—the catch is that, allegedly, she lied.
She was elected to a leadership of a Black organization under the premise she was Black. That's a problem.
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) June 12, 2015
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"There have always been white allies of civil rights in this country,” says Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project, a national civil rights organization. “White Americans have made significant contributions in pushing forward the rights of African-Americans. However, assuming a different identity than one that is authentic is problematic. She lied not only to the public, but to the very people she was trying to help."
Those upset with Rachel say that in pretending to be anything other than white, she has abused her privilege. "Privilege means that there are benefits bestowed to certain people in this country because of their position in the context of America," says Dianis. A white person has privilege because of the history of racial discrimination in the U.S.—it doesn't mean their lives are completely free of any problems, just that in certain cases, there are things they don't need to deal with because of their race. "Being black is not something I can take off and put on when it's convenient to me,” says Dianis. “My history and experience are not something I always chose. It's great to have white allies, but they also need to know sometimes their privilege impacts the work. Quite frankly, she used that privilege to put herself in a position of credibility within the African-American community."
#RachelDolezal pretty much can just tweet through all this and come out just fine on the other side which is the ULTIMATE white privilege.
— Rod TBGWT (@rodimusprime) June 15, 2015
Being Part of a Community
While Rachel is unique in actually putting the work forth to masquerade as another race, experts say the urge isn't that uncommon. "What makes her case unusual is the long-term deception, not her interest in fitting into and being part of the black community,” says Mikhail Lyubansky, Ph.D., an expert on race and psychology at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. We see it in white teens who embrace hip-hop culture in terms of the language they use, the clothes they wear, and the friends they hang out with."
Rachel is racially and culturally assimilating into a group she identifies with, for whatever reasons. If you look at immigrant communities, you often see some sort of cultural assimilation. When immigrants arrive in a new country, some of them take on the behaviors of their new culture, sometimes because their own community is just too small in number. "Obviously that's not the case here,” says Lyubansky. “She may have felt some sense of not belonging or not fitting into her own community." That feeling that she didn't belong would have had to start at a very young age, as Rachel told Matt Lauer she started self-identifying as black when she was about five. "I was drawing self portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon and black curly hair," she said. "That was how I was portraying myself."
The #RachelDolezal case exposes the foolishness of liberal identity politics: just because you SAY you're black doesn't MAKE you black
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) June 15, 2015
Persecution Complex
While no one can say for sure, the roots of Rachel's actions may lie in some sort of fascination with persecution. Rachel sued Howard University for racial discrimination in 2002, saying they unfairly rejected her application to be a teaching assistant, withheld scholarship money, and favored African-American students over her in a student artwork exhibition. She could have been so moved by the struggle of being black in America that she wanted to take it on as much as possible. "Her parents adopted African-American children in Montana, where there are hardly any black people,” says Desnoyers-Colas. “I can only imagine what those children went through. She may have had some affinity with them because of some persecution, or maybe with other black people she met along the way." Somewhere in there, says Desnoyers-Colas, may be a "weird twist of narcissism" in thinking that she was qualified to lead people of color without actually being one, and while lying about it to boot. No matter how much she wanted to further race relations in America, as the backlash shows, lying about her own identity wasn't the way to do it.
Next black peoples meeting expect long lines. Everyone gotta reapply #RachelDolezal pic.twitter.com/TMRp1oRHK7
— Desus Nice (@desusnice) June 12, 2015
Rachel may have taken on the identity as a black woman to further align herself with a persecuted group, only to have it backfire as her story unraveled. "She took on this identity as an African-American woman and began to think her people are persecuted and she needs to fight against oppression,” says Desnoyers-Colas. “I feel sorry for her in a sense because I don't think she realized the value in racial identity or the anger African-Americans would feel when they found out she was a fake."
Is Rachel Dolezal Anything Like Caitlyn Jenner?
In a word: no. People are batting around the word "transracial" as though, just like transgender individuals, Rachel has always been a black woman in a white woman's body. Experts generally reject that idea as a false equivalency. The term transracial was originally used in terms of adoption, when someone from one race would be adopted into a home of another, says Desnoyers-Colas. "These are two separate issues,” says Desnoyers-Colas. “Caitlyn lived her life as a man, absolutely miserable. She wasn't trying to fool people—she was trying to survive, because back then there would have been no way for her to come out." Jenner was born knowing she was a woman, whereas Rachel adopted her new identity over time. That's what's rankling people all over the country when they see the comparisons.
Unfortunately for Rachel, many of those who may have been sympathetic to her at the start of this are even more likely to withdraw support after she brought up survival. The uproar over the often life-threatening treatment of black people in America is reaching something of a fever pitch. Her saying she needed to be black to survive, when many people actually see being black as something that threatens their lives, has struck a nerve.
So, #RachelDolezal told Today she identifies as black & has made decisions to survive. I know, tough to be white in Mon-tana/Spokane.
— Melissa Luck #kxly (@MelissaKXLY4) June 16, 2015
If Rachel had just been honest about her background, she may have been able to help the cause even more. "Good white allies bring along other white people so they understand the importance of civil rights," says Dianis. "They have the ability to change the hearts and minds of white people in ways black folks can't, and they can lift the voices of black people without taking up their space and acting like they're one of them."
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