‘Trans-race’ activist met by disbelief
Audiences sceptical of author’s claim to have switched identity from white to black
CONTROVERSIAL “trans-race” activist and author Rachel Dolezal has explained her switch in identity – from white to black – as the result of a decolonised mind. Dolezal cried on a small stage at the Johannesburg Theatre yesterday morning‚ saying it was difficult to speak about her personal life while simultaneously promoting her upcoming memoir.
She claimed that she had decolonised her mind, although many in the crowd remained sceptical.
“People have had a lot of questions about my personal life and I answer all those questions in my book‚ in my memoir,” she said.
“But we are here today to really engage in this larger conversation because even though I may have had somewhat of a unique racial journey or experience‚ race is something that affects us all.
“It’s a global issue. Decolonisation of the mind is something each individual has to contend with and people as groups have to contend with through laws and policies.”
Dolezal‚ an author and activist from the US‚ caused a media storm in 2015 when she was outed as being born to white parents, despite claiming to be black.
She was president of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People Spokane‚ Washington, chapter for just five months before her parents‚ white fundamentalists living in Montana‚ told a newspaper she was actually Caucasian.
Dolezal holds a master’s fine arts degree from Howard University but said she had applied for more than 100 jobs without success‚ and had to use food stamps to feed her children.
However, the organiser‚ Bishop Clyde Ramalaine‚ began the session by emphasising that the fundamental purpose of the Quest for Non Racial South African Society Dialogue, which hosted her as guest speaker‚ was not to place focus on Dolezal herself.
He said she was merely a guest speaker and Quest should not be defined by her.
He said that Quest was merely attempting to facilitate helpful dialogue on all levels of society to further the aim of creating a non-racial‚ non-sexist South Africa.
But while he claimed not to be promoting Dolezal’s new book‚ In Full Colour‚ he did tell the roughly 100 guests it was available for sale outside the venue.
The discussion itself centred on Dolezal‚ who told the students from City Varsity a small part of her life story‚ how she had first come to realise she identified as black and later began to advocate for black rights in university and later life.
She also spoke about physical and emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of her parents and ex-husband‚ as well as the community of Spokane.
The questions from those in attendance were critical‚ hard hitting and pointed.
“At what point in your life did you officially identify as black? At which point did you take on the advantages and disadvantages of blackness?” one student asked.
And she was asked: “Why are you here? What are you hoping to get out of this?”
“I am not expecting to get anything out of this‚ it’s actually very difficult for me to continue talking about my personal life‚” Dolezal said.
“There’s not some kind of mission that I am on to make trans-racialism a thing‚ because I don’t even believe in it.
“But I do believe that we can face that race was created by racism‚ by the energies of oppression‚ by the need to classify people to leverage power and privilege.”