Lifestyle / Rachel Dolezal’s Deception Is A Painful Reminder Of Cultural Appropriation

Rachel Dolezal’s Deception Is A Painful Reminder Of Cultural Appropriation

Lifestyle Jun 18, 2015

by Rumnique Nannar

Since resigning as the president of the Spokane branch of the NAACP, Rachel Dolezal has broken her silence on her controversial decision to deceive people about her race in interviews with The Today Show, NBC Nightly News and The Melissa Harris-Perry Show.

^{Rachel Dolezal}

This controversy emerged last week, when Dolezal's parents came forward to claim that Dolezal was white. Soon after, her adopted black brother, Ezra, said to Buzzfeed News that Dolezal warned him "don't blow my cover" when he visited her in Spokane. Dolezal had also created an elaborate past in which she'd been born "in a tepee" in Montana, hunted with bows and arrows, and lived in South Africa. This convoluted history may have passed in Spokane and Montana, which are hardly racially diverse areas of the United States.

That Dolezal thought she could get away with this fraud is astounding in our Internet age. Identity, whether it's shaped by race, gender, or class, centres around our lived experiences. We can speak from our subjectivities and no one can define or speak for our experiences, which is what Dolezal has done through her deceit. By claiming to feel a "spiritual connect to the black experience," Dolezal is guilty of co-opting an experience that is not hers. Wearing an olive shade of bronzer and different weaves over the years, her version of black womanhood is something that can be worn and commodified.

It may be true that Dolezal has done good work through her activism, but what happened to being an ally? Empathizing is crucial in solidarity, but it's the height of white privilege to vicariously appropriate the experience of the community that you're trying to serve. She even had the gall to admit on Harris-Perry's show that as a "black" woman, she too would be enraged if she saw someone like herself lying about her heritage. Dolezal seems to forget her privilege when enacting her identity as a black woman since she hasn't experienced the systemic inequalities that black women face in the United States.

Her case is similar to Vijay Chokal-Ingam, Mindy Kaling's brother who admitted to posing as a black man on his medical school applications in order to take advantage of an affirmative action policy. He shaved his hair, cut his eyelashes, and used his middle name, Jojo, to gain entry into St. Louis University. Like Dolezal's, Chokal-Ingam's experiment was incredibly insulting. He purported that black students are uniquely entitled in the education system compared to other "deserving" candidates and cited blackface film Soul Man as his inspiration.

^{(L) Chokal-Ingam when he applied as a South Asian. (R) Chokal-Ingam when he applied as an African-American.}

It's unlikely that Dolezal will make the big apology we're waiting for. She will probably continue to argue that "race is a social construct," but with that construct comes the inequalities and systemic violence that she has the agency to conveniently disregard.

^{Photo credits: Rachel Dolezal courtesy of Reuters; Chokal-Ingam courtesy of Handout/ New York Post}

Rumnique Nannar

Author

Rumnique Nannar is a new journalist with a passion for all things pop culture, film, and art. Rumnique was born in London, with a predilection for devouring English chocolate with her Vogue, ANOKHI, and Glamour magazines in tow. She is currently in her Journalism Masters at UBC. Connect ...

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Rachel Dolezal’s Deception Is A Painful Reminder Of Cultural Appropriation

by Rumnique Nannar

Rumnique Nannar

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