How do you feel about a WHITE woman who identifies as black?

[_I have a question]

Have at it lads, enjoy.

[_Polygamy-Porter]

Have at it lads, enjoy.

*Cue sad trombone sound bite*

[_Polygamy-Porter]

Questions, please give me a straight answer. Should I hand my scholarship money for black kids over to the white girl or not? If a white girl fills out an application form pretending to be black, should she be prosecuted for fraud?

Or how about these men(who "identify" as a woman) who are winning sporting events against women. Should these men be give the award?

[_Kishkumen]

I leave it to black people to decide how they will deal with her claim. It does not really affect me in any way I can think of. Since I believe in treating all human beings with the same respect, regardless of ethnicity or culture, why should it concern me that she wants to be treated as a black person?

[Guest]

I leave it to black people to decide how they will deal with her claim. It does not really affect me in any way I can think of. Since I believe in treating all human beings with the same respect, regardless of ethnicity or culture, why should it concern me that she wants to be treated as a black person?

Annnd the NAACP did exactly that.

It doesn't concern me personally either. I did find it quite humorous that a white woman tried to pass as being the black female head of the Spokane NAACP with a dark tan two bottles of black hair dye, and one hell of a perm.

[_I have a question]

Questions, please give me a straight answer. Should I hand my scholarship money for black kids over to the white girl or not?

I've already said, you can hand your scholarship money over to whomever you choose. It's your money, you get to decide.

If a white girl fills out an application form pretending to be black, should she be prosecuted for fraud?

That would depend on whether the form was a legally enforcible form where colour designation was a legitimate part of its legal binding and validation.

Or how about these men(who "identify" as a woman) who are winning sporting events against women. Should these men be give the award?

As I understand it, sporting competitions make biological 'sex' determinations as to who can enter a male or female competition, rather than gender identity. It's the rules of entry you need to be referring to, not me.

[_Polygamy-Porter]

Oh boy, she has legally changed her name to Nkechi Amare Diallo.

She has admitted that she is "biologically white" but identifies as black.

http://m.my wife.com/en/disgraced-ex-naacp-l ... a-37792658

[_Polygamy-Porter]

Or how about these men(who "identify" as a woman) who are winning sporting events against women. Should these men be give the award?

As I understand it, sporting competitions make biological 'sex' determinations as to who can enter a male or female competition, rather than gender identity. It's the rules of entry you need to be referring to, not me.

Gosh, my apologies!!! I hope I did not hurt your feelings!!!
I was merely asking you for your opinion.

[_I have a question]

Gosh, my apologies!!! I hope I did not hurt your feelings!!!
I was merely asking you for your opinion.

Apology accepted.

[_Jersey Girl]

Allow it or not?
I say no. She was born white.


Why or why not?

Edit to add for folks like IHAQ who don't understand humor.

Your choice of words are significant. It's not the place of society to "allow" it. It's the place of society to determine if society will accept it.

I say it's okay with me if her racial identity is black, that she chooses to live her life as a black woman and present herself to the world as black.

In my 3 decades of experience, a child's self concept is in place between the ages of 4 and 5 years of age. Dolezal's self portrait at age 4 indicates that she sees herself as black. Here it is. I'm sorry this is so large, I couldn't find a smaller image.



Just c/p that link. Hopefully my formatting will take care of the image. If not, I'll keep trying because I want folks to see the image I'm commenting on.


What's different about her self portrait at age 4 that veers away from what is typical in terms of self portrait, drawing development in young children, is that she chose to include skin color. It's rare for a young child to indicate their skin color in their drawings at age 4. Maybe she was closer to 5, I don't know.

What else is different about the self portrait at age 4 is that she drew in such detail such as her mouth, lipstick (?), eyelashes are typical for a child closer to age 5, and that she took great pains to carefully draw the curly hair.

This is a child who at age 4, could artistically represent herself at a very young age with atypical attention to detail. It's interesting that it looks like a mixed media project, also not typical for her age.

It's no surprise to me that she is an adult artist. We see children's gifts and abilities in early childhood classrooms.



All of that said, we can't say for sure that self portrait is really a self portrait. We're left to take Dolezal's word for it.

Alternative explanations for the self portrait:

She drew a black girl that she had seen either a classmate or someone depicted elsewhere such as television. Why would she do that?

She could have done that because her artistic eye saw the differences and wanted to draw it.
She could have done that because she admired the appearance of someone who looked very different than her.
She could have done that because she wished she looked like the little girl she was drawing.

And finally, she could have done that because that is exactly how she saw herself at age 4.

I can go in multiple directions with this. I can go with the idea that her self concept is and was almost always black. I can go with the idea that she is manipulative and speculate what her motives might be.

I have at least one family member who is by her own DNA Black, Native American, Caucasian, Eastern and Western European. This family member self identifies as Black. The truth is that many of us (I'd almost go as far to say "most") have African DNA. The truth is that many or most people whom we think of as Black or African American, are also of mixed ethnicity.

How one self identifies is an expression of how we engage the society we live in. Who are you or I to dictate to a person how they relate to and engage society? The world and the people in it aren't "either/or". You can no more decide for my relative if they are black or white based on their appearance, than you can for Rachel Dolezal, because there simply ISN'T a definitive answer to that besides how my relative and Rachel Dolezal define themselves.

In the end, this is what it boils down to. When we as members of society choose to mock and deride those who are different than we are and in doing so, cause them to feel marginalized, unaccepted, and as objects of our derision, we have opened the door to systemic bigotry, discrimination, hatred, violence and mental illness that carries with it a high potential for suicide.

People with untreated mental illness are the highest risk category for completed suicide.

So what place has humor in this discussion?