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Plato once said, “The mask which the actor wears is apt to become his face.” This musing may have been what Rachel Dolezal, former NAACP official, relied on as she falsely portrayed herself as an African-American woman. Unfortunately for Rachel Dolezal, and Plato, the Greek philosopher’s doctrine fell short this past week when her parents exposed her true identity to the public. She is Caucasian, with two Caucasian parents and a birth certificate to prove it. The lie about being an African-American woman is not the most appalling thing that Dolezal has done while creating this persona – it is the appropriations that she committed. From her mimicry of traditional black hairstyles to the hate crimes and racism she falsely claimed, Dolezal has made a complete mockery of the struggle and lives of the black community in the United States.

For many years, the white population saw the texture and density of black hair as undesirable and difficult. Blacks in the U.S. were encouraged to treat their hair with heat and dangerous chemicals to diminish their natural curls and composition. During the “Black is Beautiful” movement of the 1960s, African-Americans challenged this negativity regarding their hair by inventing styles that emphasized the very characteristics whites had criticized. This included the afro and box braids, both of which Dolezal has modeled in recent years. For the African-American community, the afro was created as a sign of progressivism and pride. For Dolezal, her afro is a chemically-induced curl that needs to be reapplied every few months to maintain her “black” image. When those chemicals fade and the afro deflates, Dolezal’s hair will have the very composition and texture that whites tried to impose on African-Americans.

Dolezal filed numerous reports to the Spokane Police Department of suspected hate crimes, including a noose around her porch and violent letters in the NAACP P.O. box. Police eventually suspended investigations of the crimes because, mysteriously, they found no leads. Also mysteriously, the letters in the P.O. box had no date stamps or bar codes. Without either marking, postal employees would not have placed the letters in the P.O. box, meaning someone with access placed them in the P.O. box. Given the nature of her dishonestly, people have suspected Dolezal of fabricating these hate crimes, yet another disgrace to the African-American community. The events in Ferguson were not staged. The pummeling and slaying of Islan Nettles, a 21-year old black transgender woman, was not staged. The thousands of incidents of blacks in the U.S. being targeted, murdered, neglected, beaten and shot every year are not staged. It seems the hate mail that Dolezal supposedly received is. If she ever bores of writing violent letters to herself, she can stop at any time. The genuine, undeniable violence and discrimination that is fueled by racism towards blacks will not stop.

Dolezal may have faced inequality during her time as a black woman, but she will never understand the inherent discrimination that black people in this country face. If the life of a black woman in the U.S. ever became too demanding for Dolezal, all she has to do is change her hair and she would be granted the implicit privileges that whites in the U.S. have. She can read a history book with the assumption it is written by someone of her race. She can ask to see the manager of a company and be confident that it will be probably be someone of her own race. She can seek legal or medical help without her race being an issue. She will have an endless amount of opportunities and benefits because of her race. Her fabricated commentary on the struggles of being a black woman in the U.S. is a parody of the actual hardships and racism that black women in our country face.

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