Rainbows and Lilacs<\/a><\/p>\nI\u00a0have always found the term\u00a0post-racial<\/em>\u00a0to not only be peculiar and oxymoronic, but flat out asinine. (didn\u2019t want to say\u00a0stupid<\/em>)\u00a0\u00a0How on God\u2019s green Earth, and, more specifically God\u2019s chosen land via the notion of the European settlers\u2019 ideology of manifest destiny, which was an inkling of their impetus to settle in the New World, now known as the United States of America, a nation built and defined on the aesthetics of color and Race, possibly be beyond color and Race which the the word\u00a0post\u00a0<\/em>connotes?\u00a0\u00a0The idea of\u00a0post\u00a0<\/em>delineates that there was an America that existed before race, and, now, in 2015, race is an afterthought or an afterword in the narrative of U.S. History.\u00a0Basically, the nation is post-racial because color and Race no longer carry any rewards nor consequences in American culture (i.e. social, political, and economic).\u00a0\u00a0Yet, let us look with a keen third eye at what Race and Blackness brought upon one Rachel Dolezal and Ms. Sandra Bland.<\/p>\nWithin the past month, the nation has seen two educated women castigated in the national media for their respective behaviors.\u00a0\u00a0Both women were educated.\u00a0\u00a0Both women spoke out with loud tongues concerning the atrocities and inequalities and injustices heaped upon African Americans in the United States.\u00a0\u00a0Both women, whether through culture or biology, identified themselves as Black.\u00a0\u00a0One was a professor of Africana Studies.\u00a0\u00a0One was beginning a new career as a Student Ambassador at Texas A & M Prairie View, her alma mater and one of the country\u2019s Historically Black Colleges\/Universities (HBCU).\u00a0Dolezal lectured on the culture of Black America, both the triumphs and tragedies, while Bland publicly spoke and protested against unjust police brutality amongst Black Americans (particularly social media videos entitled \u201cSandra Speaks\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0The dichotomy that exists between these two women is a parallel of Race that can be pontificated, analysed, and researched for years to come.<\/p>\n
Rachel Dolezal\u2019s decision to \u201cpass\u201d for Black in America was scrutinized and even demonized, mainly, by the Black community, particularly the Black Intelligentsia.\u00a0\u00a0Whereas there were some that chanted the forgiving-mantra of Black America \u201cLet that woman be\u201d, most Black Americans that I came into contact with in the real world and via social media felt betrayed because while Rachel benefitted from her public identifying of Black (NAACP chapter president, adjunct professorship of Africana Studies) she, up until last month, lived a life null and void of the constant harassment and blatant and subtle discrimination and subordination that lurks around the corners of life for most of Black America.\u00a0\u00a0Now though, Dolezal is out of work and complaining that her career and career opportunities have been ruined because of her clandestine racial fraud.\u00a0\u00a0Some would say she has reaped what she has sown.\u00a0\u00a0But, what about the literal demise of Sandra Bland?<\/p>\n
Bland was accosted, man-handled, degraded, and, in my opinion, unlawfully arrested in Texas because of a failure to signal when changing lanes.\u00a0\u00a0Three days after that arrest she was found dead in her cell from an alleged suicide.\u00a0\u00a0See what Blackness can get you?\u00a0\u00a0The difference is the costume that Rachel Dolezal paraded around in could\u2019ve been removed at any time and only landed her in the unemployment line.\u00a0\u00a0On the other hand, the Negroidian uniform of Blackness that Sandra Bland has donned from birth landed her in a dank cell and eventually a grave.\u00a0\u00a0Rachel\u2019s perceived Black womanhood and defiance in the form of celebrating Black culture landed her on CNN, low-key lobbying for a book deal.\u00a0Yet, she was alive\u2014explaining to the media why she felt the need to \u201cpass\u201d.\u00a0Sandra\u2019s skin tone and hue caused her to end up on CNN and the national media dead\u2014only alive in a mugshot and a video of her arrest.\u00a0\u00a0Her voice can be heard questioning the police officer about his egregious behavior and arrest on the aforementioned video.\u00a0\u00a0That is all that is left of Sandra Bland and her blackness.\u00a0Rachel, for the most part, will probably cease visiting the tanning salon, take the weave and braids out of her head, lay off the collard greens and mac n\u2019 cheese and reemerge somewhere as a white woman\u2014alive and well.\u00a0\u00a0Bet you she\u2019s glad she wasn\u2019t \u201cBlack\u201d in that car down in Prairie View, Texas now.\u00a0\u00a0She\u2019s probably cuttin\u2019 a jig because she was outed just in time.\u00a0\u00a0I will bet a dollar to a dime that she\u2019s not in a rush to claim her blackness these days.\u00a0\u00a0Rachel, if you\u2019re reading this, which I seriously doubt, see what Black gets you?<\/p>\n
Gee Joyner is an instructor of English and African American Studies at the University of Memphis<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 First posted at Rainbows and Lilacs I\u00a0have always found the term\u00a0post-racial\u00a0to not only be peculiar and oxymoronic, but flat out asinine. (didn\u2019t want to say\u00a0stupid)\u00a0\u00a0How on God\u2019s green Earth, and, more specifically God\u2019s chosen land via the notion of the European settlers\u2019 ideology of manifest destiny, which was an inkling of their impetus to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[61,150,29,115,183],"class_list":["post-3815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-black-lives-matter","tag-gee-joyner","tag-race","tag-rachel-dolezal","tag-sandra-bland"],"yoast_head":"\n
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