Tag: Rachel A. Dolezal

  • WorldLink: Racial identities and the politics of color Deutsche Welle (DW) 2015-06-19 Bliss Broyard responds to the recent controversy surrounding Rachel Dolezal’s “passing” as black, and describes how racial identities have shaped her own life and career. Download the interview (00:07:55) here.

  • From Jenner to Dolezal: One Trans Good, the Other Not So Much Common Dreams 2015-06-15 Adolph Reed Jr., Professor of Political Science University of Pennsylvania By far the most intellectually and politically interesting thing about the recent “exposé” of Spokane, WA, NAACP activist Rachel Dolezal’s racial status is the conundrum it has posed for racial…

  • The Original Rachel Dolezal Was a Jew Named Mezz Mezzrow Forward 2015-06-16 Seth Rogovoy As we all know, Rachel Dolezal was by no means the first white American to take on aspects of African-Americanness in her persona — calling Elvis, is anybody home? — although she will go down in history as one of the…

  • Rachel Dolezal Has Hijacked what It Means To Be Mixed-Race In America ARMED 2015-07-05 Sophia Softky Since the Rachel Dolezal trainwreck began unfolding, each day has brought ever-weirder allegations to light. From her upbringing, days at Howard University, involvement in the NAACP, and position as an Africana Studies professor – along with the predictable flood…

  • Jose Antonio Vargas on Donald Trump, Rachel Dolezal and His MTV Documentary, ‘White People’ The New York Times 2015-07-22 Jonathan Wolfe Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and immigration activist. His new documentary “White People,” which airs tonight on MTV, follows Mr. Vargas as he travels the country speaking to young people about…

  • It’s Impossible to Lie About Your Race The Huffington Post 2015-07-01 Ann Morning, Associate Professor of Sociology New York University There’s an important question being left out of the furor over charges that Rachel Dolezal, the former head of the NAACP’s Spokane chapter, has been “lying” about her race: How can you lie about something…

  • Cosmopolitanism, Black Culture and the Case of Rachel Dolezal Rooted In Magazine 2015-06-16 Annina Chirade In this past week the internet has been captivated by the unfolding tale of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who reportedly has been passing for black since 2007. She was, until recently, the President of the NAACP chapter in Spokane,…

  • Rachel Dolezal’s True Lies Vanity Fair 2015-07-19 Allison Samuels Justin Bishop, Photography Photograph by Justin Bishop. For a time this summer, it seemed all anyone could talk about was the N.A.A.C.P. chapter president whose parents had “outed” her as white. The tornado of public attention has since moved on, but Rachel Dolezal still has to…

  • Faking Black identity: An American tradition The New Pittsburgh Courier Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 2015-06-27 Robert Fikes Jr., Reference Librarian San Diego State University, San Diego, California The recent case of Rachel Dolezal, the White woman who reinvented herself as African American and headed the Spokane, Washington NAACP, is just the latest sensationalized instance of “passing.”  Though…

  • This identity and social experience is part of what [Rachel] Dolezal is denounced for having inauthentically appropriated. Unfortunately, it’s a darn sight messier and more complicated than that. For after all, blackness, responding to the dominant society’s definition and control of boundaries was in part defined by its opposition to the cultural construct of whiteness,…