Conservatives are equating one white woman’s inexcusable claim about her race to people who are actually transgender.
As you may have heard, the head of the Spokane, Washington NAACP has been outed – as white. The NAACP has a history of hiring white people and does not discriminate based on race, so it’s unclear why Rachel Dolezal claimed to be Black.Â
On Thursday, Dolezal was interviewed by local station KXLY, and walked away when asked if she is African-American, after being shown a photo of her father, who is white.Â
In fact, both her parents say they are white and of European descent, and say their daughter is also white.
“Rachel has wanted to be somebody she’s not. She’s chosen not to just be herself but to represent herself as an African American woman or a biracial person. And that’s simply not true,” Ruthanne Dolezal, Rachel’s mother, told KREM.
Dolezal reportedly grew up in Mississippi and her parents did adopt a Black son. She later married, and divorced, a Black man.
She also claimed to be the victim of hate crimes, telling local and federal authorities she had received hate mail, although reportedly the evidence is missing postal markings.
The list continues to grow.Â
“Dolezal was also the chair of the city police oversight commission and is now under investigation for allegedly misrepresenting herself on public documents,” Buzzfeed reports.
There’s no question that trying to pass oneself off as Black, as Mic’s Darnell L. Moore writes, “is a glaring example of white privilege in action.”
But there is also no question that being transgender is real, and not a lie. Every reputable medical organization agrees, as does the federal government.
But of course, the same contingent that is opposed to same-sex marriage and civil rights for LGBT people don’t agree.
When Caitlyn Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover was released, they were the first to unleash a wave of anti-trans attacks.
Now, they are claiming that Rachel Dolezal’s lie is the same as being transgender.
And it’s getting ugly.
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