Rachel Dolezal – why I’m angry

18 June 2015 - 16:29 By Bruce Gorton
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Rachel Dolezal, president of her local NAACP chapter and a university instructor in African-American studies, as she appears today.
Rachel Dolezal, president of her local NAACP chapter and a university instructor in African-American studies, as she appears today.
Image: Supplied.

I am so white that volcanic glass makes me nervous – and yet I find myself surprisingly angry about the whole Rachel Dolezal story.

Over the past year or so we have seen more and more stories about police murdering unarmed black people.

We have just recently seen a story where racist cops assaulted kids at a pool party.

Research shows that in the US at the very least, being black comes with a lower life expectancy even when you adjust for incomes, neighbourhoods and crime.

Why? Because what doesn’t kill us doesn’t make us stronger, it just erodes.

And in the middle of all of this is Dolezal.

Peter Mosley at Barrier Breaker put it like this:

“The whitest thing about Rachel Dolezal is that she supposedly knows all about black people.

“That’s white privilege, writ large.  She’s not just interested in being black; she wants a higher status among black people — she wants to show that she understands them better than they understand themselves (or, of course, her).”

In feminism there is a concept called mansplaining, in which men try to act like experts on how women should feel, rather than actually taking the time to open their ears and listen.

Dolezal whitesplained. And sure I can’t speak for how that makes black people feel, but I can speak for how that makes me feel.

Whenever I have been lied to I end up trying to filter information to avoid further falsehoods. Often the effort involved isn’t really worth it and so I dismiss what the liar is saying completely.

And there exists currently a situation where police are murdering black people and getting away with it, there exists a situation where police are assaulting black people at pool parties, there exists a situation where day to day racism grinds years off of people’s lives.

I am angry because at a time when racism is a real, present danger, Dolezal lied.

People will by nature look for any excuse to dismiss complaints and issues, Dolezal just provided one.

And people are dying.

In South Africa we have a long legacy of dismissing problems until they reach crisis point. because that is what happens with real issues. They don't go away because we don't talk about them, they fester.

The Curro schools issue demonstrates that racism is still alive in our country, particularly considering that this is the second time the school has been caught out.

America shows us that we have a long, long battle ahead of us to solve that problem.

If we are honest we will get there eventually, but dishonesty will only get in our way.

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