Yes, that chills me to the bone. God bless Oluo and keep her writing forever. This wretched world needs her.

Did you know Rachel Dolezal is from the city where I live? Surreal.

I don’t understand her at ALL. I liked that Iluo brought up the possibility that she was just a woman who loved black culture and went too far with it, and then got into why she doesn’t think that’s actually what happened. What a weird world we are in, Nishita.

Ooh, Nasty Women sounds excellent. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it. I’m thrilled you liked the Dolezal interview! It’s SO GOOD.

You are welcome! Isn’t it wonderful?

I think there are a couple of things that make a huge difference! In terms of sympathy, there’s a very VERY significant tradition of white folks putting on blackface or using a shallow understanding of black culture to make money for themselves — while the people who in fact are black or who created/innovated in black cultural traditions lose out. So it’s hard to look at Dolezal and not see that history and the ways that she used her supposed blackness to benefit herself financially and socially. It happens in a context.

There’s also a difference between race and gender in terms of history. Your gender is something that’s specific to you, whereas race is handed down to you. There’s a family history to race that doesn’t exist with gender, you know? So for Dolezal to claim that she’s black, she also has to lay claim to the history of American blackness, and that history isn’t hers to take. That’s a huge difference for me, and I’m thankful to all the brilliant black trans folks who framed it that way and helped me understand the difference more clearly.

I hope so too. I feel like this Iluo article has said everything that needs to be said about her, and we can let go of it now.

Hahahaha, she’s WAY too cool for me. I never want to meet anyone whose work I admire, unless I guess I knew them before I admired their work. It’s way too intimidating!