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Recently, Rachel Dolezal, president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington, has opened up about her "identity". Her complexion and her interviews have led people to believe that she is an African-American woman. However, her parents came out and said that she is not black at all; she is Caucasian. Since then, social media has been buzzing about the topic.
People, especially blacks, are not mad that she is white; they are mad because she is lying about it. During an interview with Matt Lauer of the Today Show, she said, "I identify as black". In the interview it seemed as if she was "beating around the bush" with most of the questions. She never directly addressed why she lied about her race or the common critiques about her hair and skin. Her picture when she was a young girl shows her as a pale blonde, but a picture of her now shows a darker complexion with curly hair. It seems as if she wants to neglect her original race and trade it for a new one.
Being an African-American woman is much more than tanned skin and kinky hair. An African-American woman is not a costume that one can put one whenever she wants. An African- American woman is strong and confident, and she has had to endure more than any other gender and race. Sojourner Truth implied that black women have had great struggles to overcome in her speech "A'int I A Woman". So, black women have endured unique experiences that is unfamiliar to any ethnicity and demographic. For Rachel Dolezal to claim that she is black, rejecting her own race, and introducing this new term "trans-racial" is not only an insult but a dis to black women. W.E.B. Du Bois once said, "But what of black women? I most sincerely doubt if any other race of women could have brought its fineness up through so devilish a fire". You cannot fake that Rachel Dolezal.