Opinion: We Should Celebrate Rachel Dolezal like We Celebrated Jackie Robinson
The world owes Rachel an apology
Opinion written by Carol Kooky Ph.D
In an age where victimhood and perceived oppression have become social currency and position markers on a stratified social hierarchy, real victims of oppression are still slipping through the cracks. One such victim was Rachel Dolezal.
Rachel was just your typical black activist, fighting the good fight on behalf of freedom and equality. She was an active leader in the black community, serving as the President of the Spokane branch of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), as well as a teacher of Africana Studies at Eastern Washington University. Life was a struggle for Dolezal, as it is for all black people, especially black women and especially black women activists, but she had risen above the oppression of the white man that was constantly holding her back, and achieved her dreams and ambitions.
It was then in the Summer of 2015 when her life would be turned upside, by none other than her parents. Her own flesh and blood spread harmful allegations about her that ended up costing her everything. Her parents claimed that since they were both white, there was no way their daughter could be black. It isn’t surprising that America, a country founded on bigotry and everything evil and horrible in the world, would deny Rachel her black identity. It especially isn’t surprising that the world would take the word of the cis-hetero-white parents over the lived experience of the transracial black female activist.
We live in a white dominated space that chokes out black voices like Rachel. She was effectively denied her entire existence, and everything she ever accomplished, all on the back of a rumor started by a straight white married couple. Meanwhile, when Bruce Jenner announced he was now “Caitlyn Jenner” and was living as a woman, the world immediately accepted him. It should come as no surprise that the identity of a former white man was accepted and not the identity of a black woman. Rachel lost her teaching position, her role as President, she lost everything - all because people were not willing to accept her as a transracial activist.
Now the specter of white supremacy has reared it’s ugly head in America once more, as the exploits of transwoman swimmer Lia Thomas have been affirmed, while Rachel has still been denied for decades. Very fitting for a country that once sold black people as slaves, to recognize Lia (formerly a white male) and not Rachel (an actual black woman). And wouldn’t you know it? USA Today just named their woman of the year: Rachel Levine (ANOTHER former white male), effectively snubbing Rachel again.
It’s time for the world to stop pretending to fight against bigotry and racism. It’s time for the world to stop denying the lived existence of one of it’s bravest heroines. It’s time for the world to apologize to Rachel Dolezal, affirm her existence as a black female activist, restore her positions with back-pay, and end this terrible chapter of American History.
Carol Kooky is a professor of Applied Transracial Theory at Harvard