Rachel Dolezal Changes Her Name To Nkechi Amare Diallo

[demmiblue]

Source: TPM

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Former Spokane, Washington, NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal, who resigned amid criticism that she was passing herself off as black, has changed her name to Nkechi Amare Diallo.

Court documents show a judge granted her request on Oct. 7, 2016. Her new name has origins in Africa.

The former Dolezal has acknowledged that she is "Caucasian biologically" but says she identifies as black.

Her race became a national topic of conversation in 2015 after a local news reporter questioned her on camera about her background.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/rachel-dolezal-gets-new-name?utm_content=buffer0d2ee&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Hunh.

[Adrahil]

1. Clueless white woman.... NT

[Hortensis]

33. Well, if she said she was biologically male

and renamed herself Roger, would we feel she had a right?

I am not saying everyone should support this...very individualistic person's right to claim to be black just because she feels black inside, but might a knee-jerk rejection to this at least be useful in helping people empathize with the emotional reactions of hard-core conservatives to sex changes?

Frankly, I have no particular problem with this person living her life as a black person, but then I'm comfortable with letting the already embattled 13% deal with it. Surely they can handle these relatively rare events. Maybe just consider them as one more vote each? As in...whatever.

[Adrahil]

36. I think racial politics are different from gender politics. NT

[Hortensis]

37. Umhm. And racial bigotry is different from gender bigotry,

or religious bigotry, or political bigotry, or ethnic bigotry.

Not according to social scientists.

Generally speaking, political blacks for very good reason are very protective of their identity. It's key to creating a fairly monolithic power bloc. Of course this sort of thing is going to be seen as something of a threat by some.

Especially when half at least all blacks are conservative by personality (and politics) and just as prone to racial and sexual bigotry to various degrees as whites. Those especially are the "some" hostile to and rejecting this attempt by an outsider to be one of them.

(Setting aside that she actually achieved a leadership position before being outed. I'd want to slap her around a bit myself before letting her hang around.)

[meadowlander]

44. Well, if we go back enough generations, we're all "black".

I have reddish hair and grey eyes but my grandmother was Sicilian. I probably only have to go back 10 or 15 generations to hit an ancestor who looked African or Middle Eastern.

Statistically, we only have to go back to the 13th century before we have more direct ancestors than there have ever been human beings.

I'm about 50% Irish/Norse, 25% German, 25% Sicilian that I know about. Why should I be limited in my ability to identify my ethnicity to the options that I happen to look like and from which my last name derives (i.e. Irish), particularly where I only really know my "racial" origins going back four or five generations?

Race, to some extent, is a social construct rather than a biological fact. Whether we "live life as a black person" or "live life as a white person" is something that society loads us with based on our appearance rather than the actual facts. The vast majority of us are both black and white to one degree or another.

There are examples of biracial twins where one child looks white and their twin looks black. If the "white" twin chooses to "act black" is that something that society should condemn them for?

[forjusticethunders]

45. One is based on biology, the other is not.

Gender identity is neurological, generally formed in utero. Trans people are objectively the gender they identify as, backed up by numerous scientific studies. In fact, "trans" is a bit of a misnomer - a trans woman/man was never a man/woman to begin with (transition is simply making the choice to conform with the social fashions of their gender, which is natural for everyone), she was just born with biological male parts. Yes, this seems like they're the same thing, but if a woman caught a disease that made her sprout a dick and balls, she would not magically cease to be a woman.

Race is 95% sociological, created for one group to extract resources and labor from another group, and is an ex post facto sorting hierarchy based on the amount of melanin in the skin.

Why does that matter? Because race only exists as an experience that other people do to people of color, while gender exists as an objective biological, neurological, scientific reality. Therefore, "Blackness" can only make sense in the context of the sociological experience of being classified into a certain spot of the hierarchy, therefore being "transracial" is incoherent, because "race" is incoherent outside of the experiences created by the artificial, socially constructed melanin hierarchy. While we celebrate "Blackness", this celebration is defensive in nature against a system that has both grouped us in a spot on a hierarchy, and made us a lower level, demeaned, dehumanized class. That's why Rachel can't be "black", because people with a lot of melanin are not born "black", they are made "black" by racism, and if you haven't experienced racism, you really can't be black.

With that said, if racism is ever defeated for good, it won't matter if someone without melanin identifies with whatever it is people with melanin do, because presumably there'd be no racist experience to form the basis for the hierarchical separation.

[Initech]

2. She really needs to go away.

[COLGATE4]

3. A hour ago... nt

[ThirdEye]

4. Honest question

My buddies and I love nuanced discussions about ideas, so we asked ourselves: "if one can assert their real gender is not the one that matches their biological sex, can the same be said for race?"

It feels like the answer is no, it's not the same. However, we couldn't come up a compelling reason it's different. We could only conclude that we'd defer to the experts.

Can anyone here on DU provide some legitimate insight?

(note: I know Rachel's case is different because of the deception)

[demmiblue]

9. Nature vs. Nurture. n/t

[ThirdEye]

11. We went down that path too

Who are we to say that isn't in their nature to identify as a different race? Isn't that what a transsexual individual does?

Now if we found the biological reasons for being gay or transsexual, but found nothing relating to race, I can see where you're coming from. Right now it just seems like an assumption.

[Rustyeye77]

5. Nkechi Amare Diallo...I like it.

She needs a new start after her oppression and loss of job.

[snooper2]

10. Correct, especially with her oppressed childhood

[maxsolomon]

13. You might want to read up on her childhood

Before you point that finger.

[snooper2]

17. she is a professional liar, starting from a young age

Just like she faked all of the hate crimes supposedly committed against her...

Lied about living in a teepee

plagiarism of a painting

lied about cervical cancer

lied about who was her father

lied getting into college- then sued



You really should be able to see white through her by now

[maxsolomon]

27. yep, she's a fraud

but her fundy upbringing was real. and really fucked up.

[radical noodle]

29. Her parents were real nutters

who took in black kids as fosters. She took care of those kids and loved them while she felt unloved herself. I'm not excusing what she did but we certainly have no problem excusing others who do bad things due to their upbringing.

I'd rather stalk trump or Casey Anthony than this woman who now has no life at all anyway.

[Mendocino]

6. In the article she laments

about not being able to get a job except in porn or reality TV. So this shallow stunt will give her another fifteen minutes of fame on the talk show/book circuit.

[heaven05]

18. yeah I know

she should have stayed white, right? How dare her identify with those AA's. Shame on her....

[logosoco]

30. and yet she has money for a name change.

interesting choices.

[geek tragedy]

7. LMAO. nt

[snooper2]

8. "she can't find a job and the only work she has been offered is in reality TV and porn."

We had such high hopes for her

[Blue_true]

31. Reality tv can make her rich, if she can stand the intrusion. nt

[superpatriotman]

32. Reality TV could make her president

It works!
Reach for the stars.

[maxsolomon]

12. This isn't an attempt to garner more attention, it's an attempt to outrun it.

Did she pick your pocket or break your leg? No?

Have you ever read about her fucking insane fundy upbringing and her parents who adopted black kids and abused them? No?

By all accounts, she was doing a good job leading the NAACP in Spokane. She held a job as an adjunct professor at EWU, teaching African American history, too. She's competent, but her notoriety prevents her from pulling her life back together. With a new identity, maybe she can get a 9 to 5 job so she can afford to raise her kids. She has kids, you know - including a toddler, IIRC.

The judgment on DU regarding Dolezal is really unbecoming. Let her wave her delusional freak flag and save your anger for actual monsters, LIKE THE RUSSIAN STOOGE IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

[BainsBane]

15. Other white people manage to teach African American history

without pretending they are black.

[maxsolomon]

28. Right. She's DELUSIONAL.

I don't see the harm she's inflicting at this point, and she's not been convicted of a crime that I'm aware of. I'd like for her to be able to feed her kids.

What further punishment do you want her to receive?

[BainsBane]

34. Did I say she should be punished?

I don't think a thread on a discussion board qualifies as punishment.

[heaven05]

14. so she lied to

keep up her identification with AA. Boy white people and some black people sure are pissed off about this. I wish more white people could identify as/with AA, maybe some of this goddamn sessions, bannon, duke, jones, miller slick dog whistle and overt racism would be countered and maybe disappear. But nooooo...gotta be black or white, nothing in the nuanced areas allowed. I don't give a damn that she is "biologically" deemed white by racist and ignorant classification systems and people that allow apartheid to be continued by many other names in this country and the world. I am sorry for her that people are so ignorant.

[snooper2]

19. sorry- "transracial" is never going to be a thing

I guess this should be fine too...


A Man Says He Tries to Live Life Like a Dog

Fuck it, I identify as a dolphin now feed me some fish

[heaven05]

21. please you

seem to embody who I pointed to in these posts as being derisive of whites who want to be black. Many blacks used to pass for white and god help them if whites found out they had that two drops of black blood. So whites many times do the change against biological definitions of race out of maybe, most times, compassion. Blacks passing for whites in my day were looking for a better chance to get some of the 'things' promised to the then majority society. So I understand about the nature of people who cannot stand white women who identify with AA, hell, god forbid she has an AA husband or boyfriend. But I understand you attempt at humor. Fell flat on it's face by the way.

[snooper2]

22. Actually, I identify now as 54% Southeast Asian, 28% Islander and 18% Eskimo

You should check out my closet!

[heaven05]

23. actually, I'm 50% german

25% Spanish and 25% AA. Yeah closets are something else.

[Oneironaut]

24. Dr. Phil is basically Jerry Springer pretending to be classy.

I suspect most of the guests on there are putting on an act.

[coco22]

35. I was going to say..

So if I felt like I was some type of animal,could I be transformed or should I.

[ornotna]

16. With all that's going on in America today

This doesn't even come close to getting on my list of things I should be worrying about.

[AngryAmish]

20. Let her live in obscurity

She is nuts but so are a lot of people.

[WillowTree]

46. If only she will.

[RandiFan1290]

25. Whoop de fucking do? nt

[irisblue]

43. this

[yuiyoshida]

26. Wow I heard about this...

smh.. totally stunning. She is off her head, for sure.

[calendargirl]

38. Whatever happened to--

Randys1?

[Fluke a Snooker]

39. This is really a small problem, folks

Look, we got far more serious broccoli to cultivate here.

Trump is threatening to destroy all non-whites and promote global misogyny, and we are discussing the merits of whether a woman who had done an outstanding job in fighting off the GOP (which was a good thing) as the leader of the NAACP in an area where we have repression against African Americans to a higher degree, was qualified or not.

Focus, people! The GOP is behind this trying to divert our attention from the real agenda.

[Blue_Tires]

40. Alternate headline:

Rachel Dolezal whores for 15 seconds of attention, media obliges

[MrScorpio]

41. This woman has some serious issues.

There's nothing wrong with being born white. It's just that no one is ever born a white supremacist.

[JHan]

42. So this is not the onion?

LOL.. I can't stop laughing......


HAhahaaaaaaaaaaa