By Monique
The fervor around Rachel Dolezal has died down a little bit since Thursday and Friday, but the story is still the story that’s perplexed the nation. Of course, something like this couldn’t exist without the thinkpieces. Let’s get into them.
I’m a huge reader of Awesomely Luvvie, and Luvvie Ajayi was able to unpack all the issues surrounding Rachel Dolezal (race, appropriation, the Dolezal stealing the spotlight and opportunities from actual black women activists) and recover from a huge overseas trip! (If you follow her Facebook, you’ll know she’s been traveling the world recently). Her post on these shenanigans is a great one.
Buzzfeed’s Adam Serwer writes that white people have been messing around with race and privilege long before Rachel Dolezal. The piece of his article that’s been going around Twitter is this:
Yes, Adam! http://t.co/zHQZOpU8sj pic.twitter.com/cPlVtMmau7
— Bim Adewunmi (@bimadew) June 14, 2015
Want to read the rest? Here you go.
Michael P. Jeffries writes in his Boston Globe op-ed that he hopes people refrain from mocking Dolezal enough to think about the lessons we can learn from race, racial appropriation, the construct of race itself. Also, Jeffries addresses the lack of recognition of many actual black women who have fought long and hard for racial equality but are routinely erased by society.
This isn’t really Rachel Dolezal specific, but since the Lois Lane comic book featuring Lois turning into a black woman for 24 hours was referenced heavily during the hashtagging, I thought it’d be interesting to promote this post by Brandi at House of Procrastination. In the post, she gives a hilarious play-by-play of Lois’ time as a black woman, complete with Lois’ argument with Superman about marriage.
What did you think about this Rachel Dolezal madness? Give your opinions in the comments section below! Also, Follow COLOR on Facebook and Twitter!
