What Is This American Woman On !

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-33152596

You are either black or you are not. Her parents have said that she is most definitely white, so why is she still continuing to say she is black ?

Quote from her Mother, in the above link :::

"Hours beforehand, her mother Rutheanne Dolezal told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme that her daughter had become "disconnected from reality".

You can say that again !

[Svejk]

http://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/jun/12/us-unemployment-rate-african-americans-resilient

[ludwig]

Devil's advocate question - If you can be born one gender and choose to become another, why not race?

[anotheoldgit]

ummmm

/// How rude, AOG. ///

If you do not wish a person to retaliate rudely, please do not be rude to them in the first instance.

[jim360]

I've been pondering that question since I heard this but haven't come up with a convincing answer yet. It depends on what you mean though by "choosing [to become another race]", I expect. And then separate from that issue is the manner this woman's gone about doing it. Lying about her origins and maintaining that lie for so long; additionally, if reports are to be believed, she has adapted the race she identifies with to suit her present needs, eg at university over a decade ago she was complaining about discrimination suffered due to her being a white person in a predominantly black university. So it's all a bit too much of a mess.

[youngmafbog]

From the Independant:
//Although her parents are both white, Ms Dolezal had black adopted siblings and grew up in an African American social circle. She later married a black man. //

I would suggest she is suffering from some sort of identity crisis from her upbringing. Having Black siblings and in a black background she may well have thought she was the odd one and wanted to be part. It is also possible her parents doted on the adopted children more than her so she tried to be like them to get attention.

She needs a shrink, but I suspect her parent may well have a few questions to answer for her problems.

[ludwig]

Yes jim. This woman appears to be just dishonest for whatever reason best know to her, but I thought I'd open it up to a general question. If you feel like a black person trapped in a white body or vice versa, should you be criticised for wanting to become a trans-race person?

[jim360]

In the most general sense, no I don't think you should be -- the caveat being that I'm not really sure what it means to be "trans-race".

This isn't the first time I've seen something like what Mr Dolezal has done or said. I'd seen a comment like "I'm not white mentally" or something*, but it looked closer to either someone just having a joke or alternatively someone who was going through a particularly extreme phase of rebelling against the system. At any rate "trans-race" people are far, far rarer than transgender people.

* http://i.imgur.com/D0AyeLL.png, with apologies for the language, if anyone's interested.

[jim360]

(Oh, and a bit of research suggests that it was, after all, a spoof. I thought so!)

[mikey4444]

I think some people are taking this rather farther than it needs to go.

She can "identify" with whomever she likes. She can tell people she is really a Martian if she wants to, but it won't make her into an extra on some sci-fi film.

She has pretended to be a black person, and she plainly isn't...end of story !

[ToraToraTora]

Ludwig, you cannot choose to become another sex either, even if you swap bits around a man is XY and a woman is XX, end of.

[ludwig]

^my point is though, that 'society' seems to accept one, but be getting all upset about the other. I found that interesting.