Dolezal just completely lost me - Can't be white and the mother to a black child?

[carolinayellowdog]

16. make believe by itself would be pathetic, but the resume-building aspect is corrupt

I can fully relate to a person in a racially mixed family not feeling as "white" as other whites without such personal experience. And also feel that we white members of mixed families have a special responsibility to speak up on racial injustice issues we observe in society. Working for NAACP is something so inherently positive that I want to cut her a bit of slack for wanting to do that with her life. But this whole masquerade/charade was and is so tied into her livelihood in academia that I feel disgusted by how she exploited the entire community as well as the organization. The Ward Churchill episode seems to be a pseudo-Native American equivalent. Someone who worked his way into positions of trust based on a fictional persona and then got caught.

There is an underlying power struggle with the mother over the adopted son/brother and Rachel thought adopting a black appearance and life story would strengthen her position. Maybe the failure of the marriage had something to do with this-- did it follow or precede the creation of the pseudo black identity? With this Pandora's box open, we may be hearing from the ex-husband's POV eventually. There are layers upon layers of weirdness in this story.