Dolezal's Deception: The Lie We Should Be Worried About

Caitlyn Jenner’s decision to change genders has been a hugely debated topic in the past few months; but what about challenging racial identity? Rachel Dolezal, the former president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, was recently accused of lying about her supposed African-American heritage. For years before, Dolezal had been asserting her African-American ethnicity in classes she taught and on her social media pages. Dolezal’s parents outed their daughter by publishing pictures of her as a white female throughout her entire life. To complicate matters further, Dolezal denies her parents’ claims and continues to falsely insist that she was born and raised by an African-American father. Regardless of her parentage, she still identifies

Nikol Beckham, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Randolph College illustrates another perspective on this issue in her article “Rachel Dolezal’s Deception isn’t the Lie We Should Be Worried About.” Like mentioned before, race is a social construct, not a legitimate biological term. The labels that are placed on people of different races have been proven to be illegitimate in terms of genetics, but still the associations made about different races still exist. So why do people still use the term race? Professor Beckham believes the only reason the term “race” still continues to be used is because of the “social significance” it still has in society. It is evident that there are physical differences between people of different races, but these differences have no meaning by themselves in society. Therefore, there are distinctions drawn about certain races because people align these physical differences to social or cultural differences we observe in different races. Even so, these sociocultural associations are rapidly disintegrating in our society. It is evident that in broader terms, the term “race” has no biological boundaries. So in that case, is Rachel Dolezal clear of fault? Not exactly. Beckham argues that besides the obvious lies that she constructed, Dolezal has “[taken] lightly the enormous fluid, complex, and weighty condition that is American blackness.” The cultural load of being an African American cannot be simply

Disregarding if it is acceptable to change races, her blatant and deliberate misinformation about her life have clearly made her known as a liar. But on the topic of race, is changing race possible? Can people change races without being a member of the race or knowing its vast culture? The most simple answer to this question is another question: who cares? If we truly want to cure racism, then why are we trying to prove that it is so different to be a member of a another race? The roots of prejudice spring from when a group in power acknowledges and exploits the differences between that group and a different group. This type of cultural zealotry is exactly what caused systemic racism in the first place, so arguing that it is impossible for one to ever be another race is enforcing primitive prejudice. Rachel Dolezal is obviously a bad example for this topic, because it appears that a good portion of her decision to become black was in order for her to gain influence. However, if other people want to become a different race, then they should be allowed to. Imagine if a person who desired to change genders was denied their decision because they “don’t understand the enormity of female/male culture.” It would be sexist and transphobic. When we truly eradicate racism, race will not even be acknowledged. It’s a hopeful and impossible utopia, but until then, we can begin by taking steps to