The Sunday Mail
Rachel’s issue makes us realise that life is not just black or white. There are many within us who would want to be white, but because we didn’t have the fortune of suffering from vitiligo, we might have to make do with whatever we can with our black pigmentation.
AFTER . . . Rachel as a ‘black’ woman
A debate that raged for most of this past week was on Rachel Dolezal and honestly, how could she? Her crime?
Pretending to be black for the past couple of decades or so, when she was and is white. That outpouring of venom, condemnation and emotion coming from the same society that transformed Bruce to Caitlyn Jenner and when you hear them rant and rave, you would think they have brains upstairs, or morals. But do they?
If people can choose to change, from being a man in the morning to being a woman in the afternoon, then what the hell is wrong with changing from being white in the morning to being black in the same afternoon?
Or from being black to white?
Those who wanted to soak us up with morality and ethics, moaned of how Rachel had cheated her way into a mainly blacks university, obtaining her degree, whereupon she might have denied some “deserving” blacks that place to study.
Hear, hear!
But did Rachel cheat her way into her class and out of her exams? Wasn’t she exceptional in her studies? Was she awarded her matriculation merely because she was “black” or she deservedly attained her passes? That is very irrelevant, they argued.
BEFORE . . . Rachel in her teens
That she feigned to be black when, in actual fact she was as white as snow, is her crime. But where were they, our moral teachers of today, when they left little Michael Jackson teach the world how to pronounce “vitiligo” two or three decades ago? It was proper then? It wasn’t wrong? It was a condition?
Rachel Dolezal’s issue brings right onto our table tops how complex the issue of race is and helps us understand, to an extent that is, that no matter how well off you are, race is of paramount importance in whatever you do or achieve.
They will tell you that, but Barack Obama is black and he went on to become the president of America.
But go and re-read the history of Obama, is he black, does he feel black? They say he has Kenyan blood, yes, but identity? Does he relate with his kinsmen back in Kenya? What about that maternal background of his? We should ignore it?
They will tell you Tiger Woods climbed to the top of the world, in spite of him being black. For those of us, short on black heroes, yes we welcomed Tiger Woods, embraced him and took him home as one of our own. But did he embrace the blackness? Was he ever part of us? He went on to marry Elin Nordergren. That must have been a bold and brave declaration. And if anyone didn’t get the message the first time, he went on to send it again — Lindsey Vonn.
But then again, why are we so obsessed with race? If God so wanted us to be that equal, why then did he create us that different? That is to those who believe in the creation theory. The evolutionists will tell you that it is the bloody weather!
Sigmund Freud will tell you otherwise, that when girls Rachel’s age were having that craving for the penis, she was having any envy of a different kind, she was being the opposite of Michael Jackson, she saw and believed in black. Some have called it hair envy and some pigment envy. Make your pick.
“Since the age of five, I have always drawn in brown,” she explained herself last week as she broke her silence.
Whilst it has been “normal” over the many generations that we have lived, to transition from being black to being “white”, what has raised the ire of many, is the motive of Rachel transitioning from a colour of privilege to that of ridicule.
Honestly, how could she? She is a disgrace to the super race! That’s her crime.
There she was, a girl born to a well-off family, a family which went on to adopt black children, and given her background, how could she so spit on the race that has so many discoveries, innovations and inventions to its name? To join that despicable race?
As the world sighed and heaved — and analysed this rare homo sapien called Rachel — some of us were rather confused by what all the fuss was all about. Is it a crime pretending to be black? But then, how many of them spend hours — and even at the risk of contracting skin cancers, tanning their skins? To what end?
How different are they from our dear Rachel? And from the black side, how many of our sisters spend that fortune, trying to look white? Skin lightening creams are a hit, Brazilian weaves are a hit, so what’s the fuss about Rachel wanting to be black?
There are many whites who speak, practice and do equally as indigenous black Africans, but they have never been vilified. John Clegg, the white Zulu, easily comes to mind. Probably only difference being that Clegg never painted himself black nor (mis)presented himself as black.
But truth being, he could be more “black” than some of us.
Rachel’s issue makes us realise that life is not just black or white. There are many within us who would want to be white, but because we didn’t have the fortune of suffering from vitiligo, we might have to make do with whatever we can with our black pigmentation.
But at the back of our mind, we have that craving, that envy, of being the other colour. Some have argued, rightly so, that if the Americans don’t see any fuss in sex changes, then why should there be any fuss when it comes to colour. That shouldn’t it be ok then, if I one wakes up feeling being “black” and tones their skin as such? What’s the real fuss then?
If we have agreed to change what God has made, then it shouldn’t be discretional, should it? If we decide to change from one sex to another, why should it be a bother to change from one race to another? Or from one class to one another?
In the hullabaloo that followed the “outing” of Rachel Dolezal, there is a footnote that might have escaped the attention of many. The role her parents played in all this saga — why did they “out” their daughter? Was it because she was doing something despicable? Or that she was being a disgrace to the family?
I believe it was because she had become a success out of her devotion, that of fighting for black rights. That they had not talked to her since falling out two years ago is a significant footnote that ought to be read, and in its right context.
If you feel you can add or subtract from this argument, please don’t hesitate to get in touch: [email protected] , Facebook or Twitter @gmazara
