Friday, June 26, 2015

"Ted 2" and black-white Rachel Dolezal (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Universal Pictures
Seth MacFarlane ("Family Guy," "American Dad," "Ted") returns as writer, director, and voice star of "Ted 2," Universal and Media Rights Capital’s follow-up to the highest-grossing original R-rated comedy of all time. Joined once again by co-star Mark Wahlberg and fellow "Ted" writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, MacFarlane's Ted struggles for civil and human rights when Dylann Storm[trooper] Roof, Rachel Dolezal, and killer cops are in the news.
 
Racism is alive and well in 26 states. In Los Angeles' neighbor to the south, Orange County, the KKK recruits. People want to investigate Obama's amnesty plan (kfiam640.com)
Racism harms everyone...but not equally. Victims get it worse than the privileged.
Racist flag, symbol of slavery and traitorous rebellion to keep human beings?
Demonstrating to bring attention to racism of Oklahoma Univ fraternity (AP)
Who can be what?
Bias works against her in daily life (CM)
Wisdom Quarterly (EDITORIAL)
The problem is we decide what "what" is, and who are we to say? Is Ted human? Is Rachel Dolezal black? We think she is, but that is a very unpopular opinion. Can "black" have two meanings, or is it only what the Deciders say it is?

Recently a 70-year-old woman found out that she's "white." She was adopted as a child, and her parents never told her she was adopted. She was raised as a light skinned black woman.

Obama gives great eulogy to quell racism.
But in 2013 her mother told her she was adopted, and she looked into her genealogy. In the process she discovered her white relatives. When she visited them, they thought her travails were finally over now that she was reunited with her real roots -- wait a minute, she said, I'm staying "black."

What does that mean? It means there are two distinct meanings of the word black in our American culture. One is what we imagine is the biology of being black, which is actually just the phenotype suggestive of a distinct genotype. Then there's the social construct Dolezal keeps reminding us about.

I'm not one. I kill them for fun and profit.
Did you know that in the Dominican Republic, the racist country next to Haiti (which is currently denationalizing and evicting all the darker skinned Haitians it can), you are white if you are black but at least 1/16th black.

In the racist U.S. it doesn't matter what you look like. According to an archaic law, you are black if you are 1/16th black or have even one drop of "black" blood.

US has an ugly racist history.
Dolezal grew up with black siblings, at least one of which her white brother raped (allegedly, and that case is currently working its way through the legal system, which is very friendly to white perpetrators and very antagonistic to nonwhite victims). And what is Dolezal's crime, volunteering to promote civil rights? Marrying a black man? Having a biracial child with that man?

Identifying with a culture different from the one we assigned or currently attempt to assign her to? Her "job" with the NAACP of Spokane was a volunteer position; she was not putting anyone out of work. Her identity is not new but something she has identified with for years, and her appearance reflects that.
I'm a racist with black friends. I killed (AP).
Yes, she sued her university as a white person. Her identity is fluid, as it also is for biracial people Could she be biologically "white" and culturally "black"? The university was discriminating against her for being white, she argued, which calls into question how successful her "black" identity was.  Actually, she did not claim to be black but rather biracial, even then. And a half-white person wasn't qualified for the teaching position she wanted?

Confederate Army and KKK racism
We all know people who looking one way or coming from a certain biological family nevertheless adopt another culture and are taken as members of that out-group. Young whites who love rap, gang affiliation, looking tough, dressing in a hip hop manner get a special name for being white while acting "black." If a white woman marries a Muslim man and converts to Islam, does she cease to be "white"? Or is she "just confused"? Who would give up privilege for something else?

Racist comics (ferris.edu)
Of course, many of us are mad -- and certainly not everyone at WQ is united in this opinion that she is black -- because she can "pass." But lots of people can pass. Are we mad at them? If Dolezal were found to be secretly "black" or biracial while a member of the KKK, a neo-Nazi group, or the Republican party, would we all be as outraged? "How dare she pass herself off as white! It should be a crime! She's enjoying "white privilege" she doesn't deserve!" Is that what we would say? No, it's absurd. Yet, we're saying it in reverse.

"Integrity matters," the placards say, promoted by a few angry women outraged that a white person is trying to help the movement or appropriate the culture like so many white rappers successfully do? She was using her identity for great good, not personal gain. But minds are made up. See David Horsey comic of Dolezal.

Why make a big deal about Dolezal when the world needs so many MORE white allies? Disagree? Comment.

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