What would make a White Person pretend to be Black?

This is becoming an age old question similar to what comes first the chicken or the egg.  One would assume that it could be several factors that would make a white person pretend to be black but then one must also ask themselves why the same is true for so many others as well.  Like, why black women are so concerned with having hair like white women that they spend millions of dollars on extensions or hair care products that straighten their hair instead of embracing its curly origin.  Why many poor or middle class families attempt to keep up with the rich in having the same materialistic products, advantages and privileges.  Why we are not content with whom we are but always seeking to be who we see. 

Neighbor purchase a brand new car and many in that neighborhood now feels compelled to go out and buy.  Is it a feeling that we deserve the same as others or is it more about feeling like we belong, either way, the reasoning for wishing to change who you are is as important and the change themselves.  The media is filled with stories about Bruce Jenner’s transformation into Caitlyn Jenner so why isn’t this story getting more attention?  I would surmise that this story might just force some of us to finally begin to realize that the human being is truly more complex than first considered.  For me this article is not so much about the possible fact that a white person pretended to be black but why.

The article I am talking about is titled “NAACP leader of Washington state chapter lied about being black, parents say” written by Jason Silverstien for the New York Daily News.  In this article it reports “Rachel Dolezal, president of a Washington NAACP chapter, has lied about being black, according to her parents.  Washington State has been pretending to be black for years; her parents told local media Thursday.  Rachel Dolezal, who heads Spokane’s NAACP chapter and teaches Africana studies at Eastern Washington University, refused to directly answers any questions about her alleged racial ruse after it was reported.  Dolezal’s parents, who are both white, provided a birth certificate and childhood pictures of their daughter to the Coeur d’Alene Press to back up their claims she has been grossly misrepresenting herself.  The birth certificate confirmed she was born to the white couple, and the pictures show Dolezal as a pasty, blonde child — a complete contrast the darker skin and curly brown hair she has now.  “It is very disturbing that she has become so dishonest,” Dolezal’s mother, Ruthanne Dolezal, told the Idaho newspaper.  Her parents, who live in Troy, Mont., told the Seattle Times Thursday they are estranged from their daughter and have no idea why she lied.”

Now far be it for me to pretend to be some all-knowing being but there are several questions that I think needs to answered.  One would be could it be a question of living another life as a black person with those experiences which has taken 1^st position in her life?  Another is her trying to escape an existence which made her feel less than adequate to stick her original design or did she suffer from the same as Caitlyn Jenner by being a black woman trapped in a white woman’s body.  The only real person who can answer these and other  questions is Rachel Dolezal herself but considering where things seemed to be right now, I have to assume that even she may not know those answers.