the rachel divide

remember rachel dolezal? she was the white lady who represented herself as being black, was "caught", then lost her job as instructor in africana studies at eastern washington university and position of president of the NAACP spokane chapter. turns out there's a 2018 documentary about her on netflix.

I don't remember much about the controversy. pretty much just what's in the bit above. but the documentary talks about her younger life and how here parents were very religious and strict. they had two biological children and adopted a few more. all the adopted children were black. I'm not going to go into her history because I think the documentary is really worth watching, but in watching the film, her situation made a lot more sense to me.

some interesting things that come up during the film are reactions from black women. namely, that she doesn't get to call herself black, regardless of how she feels, because she doesn't live the struggles that black people have. but is that true? sure, when she was younger, she lived life as a woman person. but in the last number of years, she outwardly presented herself as black, her job had to do with the black experience and history, and her volunteer work as naacp head was also very much done "as a black woman." so how hadn't she been discriminated against in the last number of years as a black person? does it not count because she didn't always struggle?

also, what about black people in black majority places like africa or jamaica? sure they face discrimination, but certainly it's very different than what it's like as a black american. and like, probably less racial discrimination because they're in a place with majority black people and with black people in positions of power. but they also didn't struggle primarily because of their race.

so is it more so your outward appearance and how society perceives you that makes you black? cause i also watched "passing" lately, which was also very interesting and not just because of the casting choices, and would you say that clare is less black than irene because she lives as a white woman, where irene only occasionally does? is irene less black than her husband who couldn't pass at all?

obviously it's not just culture and knowledge of history. because a lot of black (hell most people of all backgrounds) don't know the history of their people but rachel knows africana studies well enough to teach it at a university. [I do wish they had interviewed some students] of course there's a big difference between personally living experiences vs learning about them, but she does seem pretty knowledgeable, at least academically.

a lot of people are mad that she culturally appropriated blackness, and while I guess she did, she also literally tried to walk a mile in their shoes. most people just want the benefits, the cool culture, the tasty dish, the street cred. she literally tried on the whole life.

I don't have an opinion about what she did, but I do wonder if she should have been treated so harshly.

couple reviews of the documentary:

Vulture - The Rachel Divide Is a Rorschach Blot for Its Viewers

Vice - The Rachel Dolezal Documentary Is a Hollow, Manipulative Spectacle