My hometown of Spokane, Washington, is not very widely known. However, in June 2015, our small city, with a largely white and conservative population, made national headlines. Rachel Dolezal, the president of the Spokane Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), had just resigned after having been exposed of posing as a Black woman despite having been born to white parents. Ms. Dolezal, however, did not feel as if her actions of running for president of the NAACP chapter and marking “Black” on application forms, let alone darkening her skin and changing her hair, had been incorrect or inappropriate. She fully claimed “Black” as her identity.
Rachel Dolezal, former president of the Spokane Chapter of NAACP
While this controversial topic sparked countless debates and discussions on race across the US, the fact still remained that Ms. Dolezal possessed the privilege to choose when to disguise herself as Black and when to revert back to white and to enjoy all the privileges that go along with this identity. Author Terry McMillan tweeted, “I wonder what race Rachel would become if she got stopped by the police?”
Jan Sowa, PhD, sociologist and author, gave a presentation to us HIA fellows regarding privilege and discrimination in the Polish context. He explained that as the world becomes more globalized, the class structures in societies have become clearer. From a research study done by the Pew Research Center, the middle class in the United States has decreased from 61% to 50% of the population from 1971 to 2015. The changes of class structure in Poland were similar. As the poor became poorer and the rich became richer, discontent began to rise among the lower class and lower-middle class. While those from the lower-middle class possessed the material capital to get by, they lacked the social and cultural capital that can come with a certain sense of dignity and self-esteem. For some, rather than viewing any resulting insecurities as an introspective issue, they interpreted this as condescension from liberals with higher cultural capital. Perhaps to avoid cognitive dissonance, they equated cultural capital with being anti-American or anti-Polish. Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski made a public comment in 2016 implying that vegetarians and cyclists are not in line with “traditional Polish values.” Sentiments such as this contributed to the election of populists like Trump and PiS in their respective countries.
T-shirt by Spreadshirt referring to a comment made by Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski
With the trend of right-leaning populists rising to power around the globe, it is critical for us all to consider our own identities in the midst of the uncertain political climate. In a workshop led by Małgorzata Leszko, trainer from the Center for Civic Education & HIA Senior Fellow, HIA fellows explored the topics of identity and privilege.
Are you born with a certain set of labels, and if so, who decides which labels are important? If society instructs me to add the descriptor of “Asian” before my claim of being an American, is it possible for me to choose to deny this piece of identity? Can you choose your own identity and refuse to be boxed in by the categories society pushes us into?
We all created “diversity wheels” that demonstrated how we define ourselves, and we found it intriguing that only some of us chose to mention our race, ethnicity, and/or nationality. On my diversity wheel, I included “Nationality - American” (specifically “Asian American”), “Ethnicity - Chinese,” and “Culture - Singaporean.” From sharing our various diversity wheels, we recognized the pattern that race, ethnicity, and nationality were not mentioned for the fellows who had privilege in those aspects.
Echoing another HIA fellow’s comment, I identify as American because I am regularly challenged by others on this fact: “Where are you really from?” I also now more strongly identify as American because Trump’s attempts to draw our country further from its ideals of justice and equality have as a result made me more connected to the America I envision and not to the America that exists today. This idea of connectedness to nationality as a result of struggle also rang true for Ukrainian fellows, who discussed the Euromaidan demonstrations that started in 2013.
Voter outreach in Seattle’s AAPI community during the 2016 general election
Our exploration of identity and privilege led us to the conclusion that privilege, rather than being interpreted as guilt or blame, should be seen as a social responsibility to support and empower those with less privilege while not overpowering their voices. If Rachel Dolezal truly wished to assist in the advancement of the Black community, a better route would have been to join the cause as a white ally, rather than to dominate the space as a white woman in blackface. As activists, it is critical for us to recognize our privilege and to then utilize it in a way that we can be better agents of change, constantly striving to create a more just and equitable future for all.
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May Lim graduated from the University of Washington in 2016 with bachelor's degrees in Political Science and Psychology. She spent her junior year studying on exchange at University College Utrecht in the Netherlands. Now living in Pasadena, CA, May has worked for local elected officials in both Seattle and LA. She is interested in criminal justice policy, having worked extensively in prison advocacy around the issues of education and immigration. Aside from her prison advocacy work, May has had community experience organizing in the API community, teaching English and citizenship courses for new immigrants, and volunteering as a phone worker at a crisis call center. In her free time, May enjoys traveling, reading, and eating McDonald's.
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