A lot of angry people have flung a lot of vitriol at a strong, beautiful black woman named Rachel Dolezal. But that was last month. Now that the storm around her has died down, maybe you ignorant haters will shut up for a minute and listen to her.
Allison Samuels spoke to Dolezal for Vanity Fair. Here’s Dolezal patiently explaining why you shouldn’t keep calling her “white”:
“It’s not a costume,” she says. “I don’t know spiritually and metaphysically how this goes, but I do know that from my earliest memories I have awareness and connection with the black experience, and that’s never left me. It’s not something that I can put on and take off anymore. Like I said, I’ve had my years of confusion and wondering who I really [was] and why and how do I live my life and make sense of it all, but I’m not confused about that any longer. I think the world might be—but I’m not…”
“It’s taken my entire life to negotiate how to identify, and I’ve done a lot of research and a lot of studying,” she says. “I could have a long conversation, an academic conversation about that. I don’t know. I just feel like I didn’t mislead anybody; I didn’t deceive anybody. If people feel misled or deceived, then sorry that they feel that way, but I believe that’s more due to their definition and construct of race in their own minds than it is to my integrity or honesty, because I wouldn’t say I’m African American, but I would say I’m black, and there’s a difference in those terms.”
If any of that bothers you, try this: Replace the word “black” with the word “female.” Replace “race” with “gender.” Replace “I wouldn’t say I’m African American” with “I wouldn’t say I was born a woman.”
Yeah. Not so smug now, are you, bigot?
It’s 2015. Gone are the days when other people could define who you are for you. If you were born a man but decide to be a woman instead, that’s okay. Correction: It’s better than okay. It’s fabulous! It’s something to be applauded. And anybody who’s applauding you with insufficient enthusiasm — let alone “misgendering” you by using the wrong pronouns and calling you by your male name — is a bigot who must be destroyed.
The same goes for Rachel Dolezal and all other transblack-Americans. They are who they are, and who they are is who they say they are. You’d better step in line, or else.
Rachel Dolezal is black. Stop hatin’, haters.
Now: Where’s her courage award?
P.S.
I don't care that my blackness offends white people. I am proud of my skin. #MyUnpopularBlackOpinion
— Godfrey Elfwick (@GodfreyElfwick) July 19, 2015