It seems so clear to me that race and gender are not analagous in this context, and that the integrity of the respective positions is not comparable.
What would it mean, to feel inwardly that your body was the wrong gender? We who are blessed with bodies and inner beings that match, can imagine and can know somewhat, because many transgendered people have talked about the emotional agony this presented for them, especially encountering the reactions of people who perceived their outer manifestation to be in conflict with their preferences and/or natural inclinations in dress, comportment and behavior, and judged them as strange. We also have an understanding and expectation of ways in which boys and girls, men and women look and behave differently from each other.
On the other hand, what does it mean to 'feel black inside'? What understanding and expectations do we have of the different ways in which white and black people look and behave, that would have resulted in a white-but-feeling-black-inside Dolezal being rejected or shunned by her peers?
What sort of emotional agony do you think Dolezal experienced being perceived as white while 'feeling black inside', particularly related to the way others perceived and judged her? How would this have impacted her life? What could she have not felt free doing? How would she have felt conflicted in dress, relationships, activity choices, etc.? What could she not have done looking white, who could she not have approached, what could she not have studied, what could she not have worn looking white, what goals could she not have pursued honestly, that she was able to pursue, pretending to be black?
I submit there is nothing she couldn't have tried or pursued honestly, in the goal of understanding and experiencing what it is to be black, that she pursued in pretense and deceit. It would have required courage and humility, but she could have honestly explored the black experience in America as a white woman.
If it were just a question of appearance, if what she longed for was simply to look black, she could have done that honestly, as well. She could have made a point of making sure people knew she was white, while associating with blacks. They wouldn't necessarily have needed to know to what extent she had altered her appearance.
Faramond wrote:What I really don't understand is why people aren't willing to take Dolezal's word for it that she feels black inside.
People aren't willing to accept that notion because it has no meaning. A female manifesting a male body does know what it feels like to be female inside, because she is female inside. She has those feelings, preferences, inclinations. These are real, quantifiable, biologically rooted aspects of human behavior. Are you honestly contending that 'feeling black inside' has the same kind of real, quantifiable, biologically rooted meanings?
Dolezal perhaps admires black people, wishes she looked black, wishes she could share in black culture or experience, but she can't legitimately say she 'feels black inside' (I don't know if those are her words or yours), because she doesn't know what being black feels like. She's white! Her life experience is the life experience of a white woman. Her perspective is the perspective of a white woman. Her cultural understanding is that of a white woman. The best she could say is, 'I feel like what I think it must feel like to be black.'
The effrontery, arrogance and condescension of her deception is astounding -- as if she, being white, could understand what it is like to be black. As if by making herself look black and tricking people into accepting her as black, she would then know what it's like to be black. As if that would somehow infuse her with the centuries-deep cultural heritage and legacy of oppression that is part of being black in America.
In one case, the person is believed without question, in the other case, the person is either not believed, or worse, the person is judged harshly in spite of the acknowledged reality of that feeling.
Of course she is judged harshly! She is a brazen liar, who conned everyone she came into contact with. She showed no respect for the people she claimed to identify with.
Yes, I think people are perfectly willing to believe that Dolezal wished she were black. What they take exception to is her dishonesty in pursuing her affinity for blackness.
Are we to just pick and choose who we believe based on which conversions are deemed acceptable, or which don't make us uncomfortable?
Which conversions?! There is only one conversion under consideration here. There is no such thing as 'racial conversion'. Race is defined by who our parents were, and who their parents were, and who their parents were, etc. You can't 'convert' to another race; the idea is nonsensical. Dolezal is no more black in black face than when appearing white.
Gender development, on the other hand, is affected by complicated hormonal processes during gestation, and it doesn't always go smoothly. There is a legitimate record of gender manifesting multiply or in opposition to a person's inward gender identity. So no, we don't pick and choose who we believe based on what is deemed acceptable, or what makes us comfortable. We pick and choose based on facts, established scientific knowledge, and common sense.
There is no legitimate scientific claim to be made, that inward race can be different from outward race. (The claim could only be metaphysical, that the creator put your soul in the wrong body, but that's a totally different realm from the question of gender confusion). I don't think people would condemn someone who felt a deep affinity for another race/culture and was fixated on presenting themselves in that cultural garb, as long as they were honest about who they really were.
Dolezal makes lots of people uncomfortable. So does Jenner, of course, but there are enough people who are made uncomfortable by Dolezal but not by Jenner that this seems to be the deciding factor.
No, the deciding factor is sleaze. Dolezal makes us uncomfortable because she meticulously maintained an elaborate deception and was found out. She's a dishonest person who played people for fools. Jenner makes us uncomfortable because we're used to her looking like a man, and now she doesn't.
Why are people so quick to judge and condemn her, without knowing what her inner self is like?
Because she lied! She lied sustainedly, deliberately, elaborately. Whatever her inner self is like, it doesn't justify treating people as she did.
Maybe Dolezal does feel an excruciating disparity between her inner and outer selves. Making herself look black, and tricking people into believing she shared their experience, was not a good or ethical way to deal with that inner conflict. Extensive therapy would have been a better choice.
(edit to refer to Jenner as 'she')