fascinating article about Rachel Dolezal & the white woman who identifies as black

[TimeForDebate]

So many parallels here with trans tales - feeling like the outsider, identifying with a group she wasn't part of and could never really be, yet claiming a right to that membership and becoming enraged when challenged - there must be some deep trauma at the heart of all these dissociative conditions that make people hate themselves so much. www.thestranger.com/features/2017/04/19/25082450/the-heart-of-whiteness-ijeoma-oluo-interviews-rachel-dolezal-the-white-woman-who-identifies-as-black

You are right of course, Eva.

How about if I start telling black people that they have 'cis privilege'? I wonder how that would go down. If I told someone who had been a victim of racism and oppression all her life that she should just button it because it's sooo much harder for me when people question whether my flaxen hair and milk-coloured skin are in fact black. How would that go down? I mean, personally, I think she would be justified in stabbing me...

Peakpants. It certainly emphasizes the cray cray of it. It's the more honest and consistent position though. I'm sure his teli friends will put him right but they won't be able to explain why one is bad and one is good. He'll have to suppress his realization that it's illogical.

When the tra's were trying not to mention Karen white, an American trans woman was on twitter saying 'we have to stand up for rapists rights to self identify. First they came for the rapists ... I'll die on rapist hill' quite extreme. But to be fair to her it is consistent and the logical conclusion to the ideology. As with the barrister. I completely disagree with their assumptions about the nature of identity. They are wrong. But at least they follow through. I have a strange respect for that. I can't be doing with the cherry picking.

Yup, Manderley, I agree. At least it is consistent, albeit offensive and ludicrous. But the hypocrisy of all the woke TRA-supporters needs to be exposed. If you think people can change from man to woman and that a man in fact IS a woman if he identifies as one, then you must also agree that white people can identify as black and draw benefits from schemes designed for diversity.

Manderley

Still, at least he's consistent. Not sure I'd ever want him representing me in a professional capacity though: I think "words" and "definitions" are pretty key when you're a lawyer.

2rebecca

"Expand the interests and dress codes/ mannerisms of the group you are in rather than trying to be something you're not"

These days even that is not an acceptable activity according to our woke overlords. Like that poor lassie shamed all over America (but not Asia) for daring to wear a cheongsam to a prom.

Agree, cultural appropriation likes keeping people in their strictly segregated boxes as well although I suspect most fans of the term would say they approve of multicultural societies, but only as long as people stick to their box's hair styles and clothes. I think we're allowed to share music, and some food. Drinking coffee and tea is OK but jerk chicken is sacred.

Rebecca,

'Drinking coffee and tea is OK but jerk chicken is sacred.'

I remember years ago, watching a docco about Lawrence of Arabia and the talking head said, 'the funny thing is, you never see anyone going native the other way do you?'

I nearly combusted. Apart from every single time anyone wears a T shirt and jeans. And television. And all the invidious strands of Western colonial culture (peace be upon them) which have entangled almost everyone in the world. Grrr.