{"id":16529,"date":"2015-06-16T16:04:58","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T16:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/colorlines.madeostudio.com\/article\/top-3-media-takedowns-rachel-dolezal\/"},"modified":"2015-06-16T16:04:58","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T16:04:58","slug":"top-3-media-takedowns-rachel-dolezal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/article\/top-3-media-takedowns-rachel-dolezal\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 3 Media Takedowns of Rachel Dolezal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Top 3 Media Takedowns of Rachel Dolezal<\/h3>\n

\n By Sameer Rao<\/span> Jun 16, 2015<\/span>\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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So Rachel Dolezal, the ex-NAACP chapter president who was publically revealed to be white and\u2014wait, you already know the story\u2014finally broke her silence<\/a> this morning on NBC’s \"Today\" and reaffirmed her identity as a supposedly black woman. Host Matt Lauer asked questions that we thought were already answered<\/a>, but supposedly weren’t (yeah, Lauer, her father is white<\/a>), and public personalities of all stripes<\/a> are quickly taking sides. <\/p>\n

We found three reactions to Dolezal in the media that we think best encapsulate what is both absurd and troubling about this controversy (all of which came prior to the \"Today\" interview). Check them out below.<\/p>\n

1) W. Kamau Bell and Adam Mansbach Exchange E-mails in Salon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Comedian and former \"Totally Biased\" host W. Kamau Bell (who, in the interest of full disclosure, is a former board member for Race Forward, Colorlines’s parent organization) had an e-mail exchange with Adam Mansbach (most famous as the author of \"Go the Fuck to Sleep\") that spilled out into a piece in Salon, which you can read here<\/a>. The whole exchange is definitely worth reading, but here’s one choice quote from Bell: <\/p>\n

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I think she did make one high-level effort to disguise her whiteness. She moved to Spokane, Washington. This did two things for her immediately.<\/p>\n

1) According to the 2010 Census, Spokane is 86.7% White and 2% Black. That basically means that Spokane is getting solid B, maybe even a B+ in whiteness. (Hell, maybe even an A- if we are grading on curve.) And 2% is so low it\u2019s probably within the margin of error. Statistically Spokane has no black people. Which makes it a great place to pretend to be black. You\u2019re not going to get a lot of pushback. And I think by virtue of the fact she was president of the NAACP, and according to everything I read they thought she was black, we can say that she got little to no pushback.<\/p>\n

The other thing is when the black population is that low, they need all the help they can get. So if Gwyneth Paltrow shows up at the NAACP in Spokane claiming to be a sista, the Blacks of Spokane (which is the name of the reality show I\u2019m pitching about this) just go, \u201cSure. Fine. You\u2019re Black! Whatever. Just sit down and get to work. These hashtags won\u2019t come up with themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

2) \"The Daily Show’s\" Jessica Williams Sends Up Dolezal’s Appropriation<\/strong><\/p>\n

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