Another story has made the headlines of the world media. It is about the famous US rights activist Rachel Dolezal who… lied that she was black.
She had claimed for years that she was partly black and outlined her origin in her looks (coils of dark hair and tawny skin). Her own parents struck the society by revealing that Rachel is Caucasian and proved this with her teenage photos, depicting a fair-skinned, blonde-hair girl.
This caused an international scandal. Mainly because the 37-year-old had built a career as an activist in the black community of Spokane, Washington.
Interestingly, it is not the only case of people “pretending”. The Straits Times gathered the most unbelievable stories from all over the world.
1. Dave Wilson who pretended to be black to win the election
In 2013 to win a seat on the Houston Community College Board of Trustees he took up and interesting advertising strategy. If a white guy didn’t have a chance in a mostly African-American district, Wilson would lead voters to think he’s black.
He printed direct mail pieces strongly implying that he’s black. His fliers were decorated with photographs of smiling African-American people and the caption read: “Please vote for our friend and neighbor Dave Wilson.”
2. Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow who wanted to be a black jazz musician
He was born in Chicago in 1899 to Russian Jewish parents. He loved jazz music so much that he started referring to himself as “voluntary Negro”.
Despite moving to Harlem and marrying a black woman, his jazz career never took off.
He was later arrested for drug dealing. The guy convinced the prison guards to lock him up with black prisoners.
“I’m colored, even if I don’t look it and I don’t think I’d get along in the white blocks.”
3. John Howard Griffin and his “Black Like Me”
The American journalist darkened his skin to pose as a black man in the segregated south in the 1950s and 1960s. He consulted a dermatologist, who prescribed a course of drugs, sunlamp treatments, and skin creams. Griffin also shaved his head so as not to reveal his straight hair.
He wanted to experience segregation himself. In 1961 Grifiin issued a book which documented his six-week “black life”.
4. For Clarence King it was all about love
A white upper-class geologist (born in 1842) fell in love with a black woman, a freed slave. He pretended to be black so they could marry. Throughout the marriage, King’s wife knew him as Todd, a black railroad worker, when at home. But he did continue to work as a white geologist. He did not reveal his real identity to his wife until he was on his deathbed.
As one of the sources said, the most amazing part of King’s story is that someone with fair hair and blue eyes was accepted as a black man.
5. Writing as a former slave
She was an abolitionist who wrote a 1857 book titled “Autobiography Of A Female Slave”, but she was a white woman from Kentucky. The effectiveness of these novels in representing slavery and the point of view of slaves often made them useful weapons in the antislavery struggle.
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