I’ve watched the Rachael Dolezal story unfold with fascination.  In effect, a white woman has been passing for a decade as…me…a professional black woman.  But it’s all fake.  Apparently though, her activism on behalf of our struggle has been exemplary.

I have lots of thoughts on this, but one thing is for sure.  Race may be a social construct, but being black is not is not something you can just wake up, put on, and Voila!  No.  Being black is a complex, shared mixture of culture, consciousness, history, experiences, struggle, and last and least of all, color.  Black people come on a spectrum of all of these, but at the end of the day, being black is fixed and immutable.

Therefore, if you spray on your “Black” every morning, no matter how much you “identify” with black folks, our culture, our stuggle and in general, the “black experience”, you’re not black.

This is not the Bruce Jenner of racial transformation.  There is no such thing as transracial.

If you want to be an ally, be an ally.  I welcome an authetic ally.  But whatever you do, don’t use your white privilege to fake being me.  The struggle is real and to fake it is very unseemly.

In a narcissistic, white supremacy-sort of way.

However, I am really digging your natural hair look.  PLEASE tell me your secret.  I’m trying to get there.