Jessica Krug, a white Jewish writer, has been revealed to be lying about being a black woman for much of her adult life.

[CM156]

I have been accused of being all sorts of other ethnic groups because most people seem to not even know what a Hopi is, or even understand what that can entail. They always assume native Americans only have black hair too when some native american tribes can have any hair color naturally. Sometimes people are all shocked and even weirded out when they attend traditional gatherings on the Hopi reservation and find out that there are full blood Hopi red heads and blondes too even prior to Europeans arriving due to our genetic makeup. In our past, Hopi had to hide some of the children from Europeans when they came because they ignorantly thought the Hopi families had kidnapped non native children, when in fact our tribe has always had these genetic variations. Scientists have attributed this being so common in our tribe vs others due to a much higher prevalence of albinism and has resulted in a large variety of degree of expression of albinism traits in the community. In places like Norway, for example, the frequency of Albanism was like 1 in 10,000 in the Hopi tribe was like 1 in 200. So the result of that produces a large varying degree of shades of hair, skin and eyes not just looking like all color has been washed out. I have family members on the reservation with blonde hair and blue eyes, with red hair and green eyes, with black hair and brown eyes and all sorts of mixes.

People having weird reactions comes with the territory though when you are the only person of your ethnicity in entire regions. People look at me and can't figure out what I am. I have never had someone guess just by ,looking at me. I have long straight, fine, light brown hair that gets natural blonde sun hightlights, and can turn blonde on top if I spend too much time in the sun and do not use hair protector and lighter skin than most Hopi, but my skin looks like I have a natural tan even when I do not go in the sun and and people always say my eyes confuse them the most because I have larger than normal eyes that have a bit of an asian look to them on the outer edges but are deeper set with a European looking eyelid unlike most asians. They are big and multiple shades of brown, not one solid color and one of eye has a darker brown streak through the iris that looks sort of like harry potter's lightning bolt. Usually people think I am Japanese, South Korean, Eastern European or Latina but they can't see to figure out what "mix" of each I am. When I tell them " Hopi" they look at me with a "WTF is that even?" expression. Their reactions are pretty funny. When I was a kid, how they reacted bothered me, but now I just find it funny.

I am sure that if I went to Hopi territory I would be utterly bewildered. Granted, this is my reaction to being in any territory outside my comfort zone, despite how similar it is to what I'm used to. I was entirely unaware that there were naturally blond Hopi people. Not that I thought it was impossible, I just didn't have a thought on it one way or another.

Granted, my knowledge of the various tribes is mostly what I've read in history books, a conversation with a survivor of a residential school, and the various aspects of tribal law that intersect with the "mainstream" legal system. One of the most common questions I get asked is, I kid you not, some variant on "I heard that members of the Native American Church are able to use drugs. How do I join up so cops can't take my pot?"

 

[SilentPony]

It’s pretty easy to not pretend to be black. I’ve never pretended to be black in my life.

Jeez, way to humble brag! Look at mister not-racist doing not-racist things as if that somehow easier than being racist.

 

[lil devils x]

I am sure that if I went to Hopi territory I would be utterly bewildered. Granted, this is my reaction to being in any territory outside my comfort zone, despite how similar it is to what I'm used to. I was entirely unaware that there were naturally blond Hopi people. Not that I thought it was impossible, I just didn't have a thought on it one way or another.

Granted, my knowledge of the various tribes is mostly what I've read in history books, a conversation with a survivor of a residential school, and the various aspects of tribal law that intersect with the "mainstream" legal system. One of the most common questions I get asked is, I kid you not, some variant on "I heard that members of the Native American Church are able to use drugs. How do I join up so cops can't take my pot?"

Yea, a lot of people don't expect to see Blonde Native Americans and they accuse people of dying their hair or that they have accused people of having their babies switched in the hospital because they are in disbelief. Sometimes they even get excluded in their own community and accusations they are not really Native Americans by other Native Americans and it can be hard on them from all directions some times. I think that was why I found what Trump was saying about Elizabeth Warren so irritating, it was just ignorant, racist and stupid. She can have a Native American grandfather and be blonde, hell you can be full blooded Native American and be blonde. Of course it isn't common, but it does happen and they do not deserve to be treated any less or worse than anyone else just for how they were born either. People I think in general are most surprised at how many there are among the Hopi more than anything. This is one of those things that lead to people inventing all sorts of crazy conspiracy stories about the Hopi like we were the lost people from Atlantis, lost tribe of Israel or that we came from aliens and other crazy things.

This isn't what people generally think of when they think of Native Americans:

Though not everyone with the different degrees of albanism among the Hopi have severe vision impairment, many of them do. My cousin who is blonde on the reservation has had some of the same problems this woman talks about having within the overall Native American community as well, especially when visitors come and do not realize she is Hopi. Sadly, it is people like the woman in the OP though that makes it more difficult for those who do not meet the textbook appearance of a person from their ethnicity.

It figures though that the major interest of Native American laws is one related to drugs... of course it is.

 

[Hawki]

This is what I wanted to focus the most on because while I might be addressing other parts of your post, this is the crux of what I want to talk about.

Here's an example. Why are there no movements to be able to call women the 'B-word'? Perhaps I'm not looking deeply into things, but I can't go anywhere on the internet without some non-African culture saying how it's censorship that they aren't allowed to say the 'N-word'.

B, as in *****?

It's a bit of a false question IMO. For instance, if I call a woman a B word, it's almost certainly insulting, whereas girls may call each other the word in jest. I've noticed something similar with the N-word - it can be a term of endearment in a given group ("what's up my N...), whereas it can also be used as a slur.

If there's an actual movement to fight censorship, I find that headscratching though. All I can say is that I don't feel any need to say either word. Least not in everyday conversation.

Now, I ask you. Which is worse? Is it worse that these members made this rhetoric apart of their identity? Or they push it as their identity politics? You can make arguments for both, and all I see are negatives each stance.

Not sure what the dichotomy is - generally, identity politics is a bad idea, no matter who's doing it. It doesn't even have to be in the context of race or ethnicity - gender, nationality, religion, etc.

Every moment to define the Black Experience from outside the Black Experience is a movement to erode its relevancy. Black Lives Matter was a movement born from just not escalating to violence every time there's a black suspect being arrested. That was turned in media and the minds of the majority that Blacks hate cops and want to attack them. And people who weren't invested heard that interpretation and decided that's what the movement truly means. I know. I had to educate several. And some are still uneasy with the movement because they were exposed to the majority's message before the actual message. These are the things that causes the struggle for identity politics. The other people's definitions will supplant what your actual intentions are.

Can you even define a "black experience?" Should you? Not for me to say, but in theory, it's lumping everyone in a given group together.

Also, I'm uneasy with BLM (at least the US chapter, the Oz chapter I don't have a problem with), but I've never laboured under the assumption that "African Americans hate the police."

So, if you'll permit me, I'll amend the statement. The need for identity politics is bad. However, it's like Assured Mutual Destruction. It must be a thing because without it, those without the power to launch (or speak with authority) would be crushed under the boots of those allowed said power.

The need for identity politics is bad, yes, but identity politics rarely makes things better.

BLM is a case of this. Because on one hand, African Americans are disproportinately shot by police - 2.5 times more likely than a Euro American IIRC. However, by the main 'race groups' in the US, Afro Americans aren't the most likely to be shot by police (indigenous peoples are), and Euro Americans aren't the least likely (Asians are, who are 0.8 times as likely to be shot). Something I've felt from day 1 is that BLM would have had a better chance of engaging more of the public is if it drew universal attention to police shootings, because it IS a universal problem. IIRC, around 1000 people are shot in the US by police per year, and even accounting per capita, and how many suspects are armed, it's still much higher than it should be, even if it's absolutely dwarfed by gun violence in the general population. You could say I'm doing an All Lives Matter argument (I'd maintain that I'm not - "All Lives Matter" is foolish at best, disingenuous at worse), but BLM racializing the issue struck me as a bad move.

Of course, you could point, rightly, that the issue was already racialized given the disproportinate polcie violence towards certain groups, but years on, has the situation got better or worse? I can't answer. But I can say that a lot of the solutions could be universalized if police were given more training for negotiation than the use of weapons (I forget the figures, but they spend far more time training with the latter than the former), and if better gun control was enforced (less weapons on the street, less fear of weapons being drawn in a confrontation), but I remember when the issue of gun violence and mass shootings were big. You certainly could racialize it (Afro Ameicans are more likely to commit homicide by firearms, while Euro Americans are more likely to engage in mass shootings), but it wasn't. BLM, for better or worse, has taken a different approach. And it's an approach that's generated pushback with All Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, White Lives Matter, and things gone even further with calls to defund the police (not a bad idea IMO) to outright abolition (yikes).

Point is, identity politics invariably lead to identity politics in opposition. Not saying that everyone has to forsake their identity, but appealing to common, shared values and experiences seems to generate better results.

 

[Gordon_4]

Point is, identity politics invariably lead to identity politics in opposition. Not saying that everyone has to forsake their identity, but appealing to common, shared values and experiences seems to generate better results.

While we can chicken and egg this thing until the cows come home, the problem with shared values as an approach is that quite frankly the two opposing sides don't have that many. And after the past, lets charitably call it 40 years, of seriously adversarial politics has turned compromise into a synonym for surrender and dishonour, I personally don't see this as being solved in that fashion.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

SNIP

I agree.

When people play the game of identity politics they are creating their own enemy. There's a difference between people brought up on the idea of the "American dream" and the values of understanding others and the belief that they live in a more inclusive world being shown how that world is hypocritical and has not lived up to its rhetoric, and those that have been brought up hearing people say that their race (Caucasian) is bad, and evil and that they are privileged.

The former then believes they need to atone for something that they were unaware of. They believe in the things they were taught, which is why they feel so guilty about it, "Inside every cynic is a disappointed idealist". The later is not brought up like that though. They are being brought up with the message that they are bad, their family is bad, and for something that they can't control. Those in families that are in fact racist might grow up and away from that family, but those that aren't that are being taught this are going to grow up with resentment towards the people that have been telling them this all their life while they do not see how they've deserved it.

The biggest problem I see here is that white people ARE the majority. The more people are taught that the world we live in is one that is based on identity teams the more people will try to "win" for their "team". This is a self-fulfilling prophesy and it is not one black people can win if everyone starts playing that game. I don't want to live in a country like that, I want to live in the country that doesn't care about someones "color of their skin but the content of their character". Yes, there are racist people, but directing the ire against not just those people but EVERYONE in their racial group does not help anyone.

 

[lil devils x]

I agree.

When people play the game of identity politics they are creating their own enemy. There's a difference between people brought up on the idea of the "American dream" and the values of understanding others and the belief that they live in a more inclusive world being shown how that world is hypocritical and has not lived up to its rhetoric, and those that have been brought up hearing people say that their race (Caucasian) is bad, and evil and that they are privileged.

The former then believes they need to atone for something that they were unaware of. They believe in the things they were taught, which is why they feel so guilty about it, "Inside every cynic is a disappointed idealist". The later is not brought up like that though. They are being brought up with the message that they are bad, their family is bad, and for something that they can't control. Those in families that are in fact racist might grow up and away from that family, but those that aren't that are being taught this are going to grow up with resentment towards the people that have been telling them this all their life while they do not see how they've deserved it.

The biggest problem I see here is that white people ARE the majority. The more people are taught that the world we live in is one that is based on identity teams the more people will try to "win" for their "team". This is a self-fulfilling prophesy and it is not one black people can win if everyone starts playing that game. I don't want to live in a country like that, I want to live in the country that doesn't care about someones "color of their skin but the content of their character". Yes, there are racist people, but directing the ire against not just those people but EVERYONE in their racial group does not help anyone.

I disagree that the biggest problem is that white people are in the majority, it is actually unconscious bias. Unconscious bias is a much larger problem. That is what causes Phsycians to not give blacks the same medication they give whites for the same condition. That is what causes police officers to think that a grandmother is being kidnapped by her own grandchildren just because they are black. That is what causes security to follow a black person around in a store. That is what causes an employer to think " there is just something about that guy I don't trust" just because they are black. That is what causes a disconnect at work among coworkers not understanding that not all cultures relate to the same things in the same way thus overlooking the black person for a promotion because they " connected" better with the white person who did. This is the same thing that makes a realtor think that the black person wouldn't want to look at the property in the white neighborhood and would prefer to look at another because they "assume" that would be their taste instead. THIS is what makes a police officer feel " more afraid" when it is a black man he is facing in the same situation he was in yesterday and was not afraid at all when it was a white man.

There are so many every day things that make huge differences when they add up over lifetimes. THIS is the biggest problem here moreso than any other factor and without addressing it and the systems that were designed only for people that fit a specific criteria and also designed to exclude anyone who did not fit that mold, we will not be able to actually solve and address these ongoing issues and they will continue to get worse over time.

 

[CM156]

It figures though that the major interest of Native American laws is one related to drugs... of course it is.

I have to inform such people that I highly doubt Native American groups are likely to accept a group of white people who want to join their religion for the express purpose of using psychotropic drugs legally. And also "it's my religion" isn't as much of a get-out-of-jail-free card as they seem to think it is.

In fact, the impression I get is that Native Americans want a total non-interference with their traditional religious beliefs/practices from outside groups and individuals, due to the history the US government has had of trying to suppress them. You can obviously speak more authoritatively on this topic than I can.

 

[lil devils x]

I have to inform such people that I highly doubt Native American groups are likely to accept a group of white people who want to join their religion for the express purpose of using psychotropic drugs legally. And also "it's my religion" isn't as much of a get-out-of-jail-free card as they seem to think it is.

In fact, the impression I get is that Native Americans want a total non-interference with their traditional religious beliefs/practices from outside groups and individuals, due to the history the US government has had of trying to suppress them. You can obviously speak more authoritatively on this topic than I can.

Groups of people trying to do exactly that is why many reservations closed their reservations or parts of their reservation to outsiders entirely. Then these same people wanting to come do drugs on native lands started to scream they were being discriminated against because the Tribes didn't want them on their lands disrespecting and abusing the people there, stealing from the people's homes because they thought they needed "cool mementos" and disrespecting the land by littering all over the place. You are spot on in that tribal members really have no interest in interference and really just want to be left alone for the most part to live their lives in peace. Tribes do not have religious recruitment or indoctrination signs up for a reason. XD

 

[CM156]

Groups of people trying to do exactly that is why many reservations closed their reservations or parts of their reservation to outsiders entirely. Then these same people wanting to come do drugs on native lands started to scream they were being discriminated against because the Tribes didn't want them on their lands disrespecting and abusing the people there, stealing from the people's homes because they thought they needed "cool mementos" and disrespecting the land by littering all over the place. You are spot on in that tribal members really have no interest in interference and really just want to be left alone for the most part to live their lives in peace. Tribes do not have religious recruitment or indoctrination signs up for a reason. XD

If I recall my history, non-natives showing up to do drugs was a problem for the people involved in the Occupation of Alcatraz back in 69-71.

 

[lil devils x]

If I recall my history, non-natives showing up to do drugs was a problem for the people involved in the Occupation of Alcatraz back in 69-71.

The hippies were and STILL are a huge problem for reservations, not just the protests. Sure, it is great they REALLY like Native Americans. But they also are too drugged up to be respectful or mindful of anything let alone the people and places they are imposing themselves on and they just don't seem to go away. LOL

Bikers and other criminal groups have also been a huge problem as well, coming through reservations raping, robbing and murdering and then tribes have extreme difficulty getting the feds to do their job and hold them accountable and put a stop to it.

 

[CM156]

The hippies were and STILL are a huge problem for reservations, not just the protests. Sure, it is great they REALLY like Native Americans. But they also are too drugged up to be respectful or mindful of anything let alone the people and places they are imposing themselves on and they just don't seem to go away.

That seems extremely rude.

Bikers and other criminal groups have also been a huge problem as well, coming through reservations raping, robbing and murdering and then tribes have extreme difficulty getting the feds to do their job and hold them accountable and put a stop to it.

That seems extremely wrong.

 

[Gordon_4]

So she was doing blackface on paper.

Black typeface as it were.......

.......I’ll see myself to the door.

 

[Cicada 5]

All the money made from Krug's book will go to black and latino writers

Any Pennies Made Off of Jessica Krug's Book Will Go to Black and Latinx Writers

Jessica Krug, the very, very white scholar who pretended to be very, very Black to get ahead in academia, has finally been denounced by her publisher Duke University Press. That means that proceeds from her 2018 book Fugitive Modernities, published by the press, will go to a fund supporting the...

jezebel.com

 

[Iron]

Nice declarations.

Hopefully it will happen

 

[Schadrach]

Yes, we have another Rachel Dolezal

Don't see the problem, aren't we supposed to accept that people are however they identify and since race in particular isn't "real" shouldn't that make it even more acceptable to self identify as you prefer?

Because on one hand, African Americans are disproportinately shot by police - 2.5 times more likely than a Euro American IIRC. However, by the main 'race groups' in the US, Afro Americans aren't the most likely to be shot by police (indigenous peoples are), and Euro Americans aren't the least likely (Asians are, who are 0.8 times as likely to be shot).

Wouldn't it make more sense to compare police shootings to violent crime rates (or even just homicide rates) instead of general population?

 

[ObsidianJones]

I'm so sorry, I didn't see this until I clicked on it today.

*snips*

My point is that there is no push from male population to reclaim the B-word for common use. There's no call for making it free use for everyone. People know what it means if you say it to a woman, and the repercussions that comes with it.

No one says it's just a word, because they know the anger they will get. It is in fact, just a word. Both of them are. But no one tries to deny the significance of the B-word in anywhere the frequency of them trying to deny the significance and impact of the N-word.

Now, why is that? The B-word is an insult. It means female dog. It was foremost meant to anger a female and/or equate a male to a female. It was not meant to state that a female is less than human. That's what the N-word meant. The N-word was the classification of cattle that Blacks were. A human was a man. An N-word was 3/5ths of a person, so you can do whatever you want to them.

It is completely an accurate question because we do not have the tidal wave of people who are coming up and trying to have ownership of the B-word, even though it does not have any where the historical weight of what the N-word does.

Yet.

People still argue to have the power to use it again. To define it in a way that they can feel empowered to once again do what they want without caring how it affects the African American community. And the fact that you can have an opinion versus the actual history of the word is exactly the point I'm driving at.

Absolutely I can define the Black Experience in America, thanks for asking. It is what ever was allowed, put upon, and/or mandated by the majority. It is essentially having every one of your thoughts told to you. Your movements defined by how others perceive them, and thereby the world agreeing with those others instead of your own mind. It is not even slipping up once because everyone already believing the propaganda. There are other nuisances, but that's the general gist.

And should I? Yes. Because while I am my own individual person with hopes, dreams and goals, every living person is affixed a label. An attractive woman is affixed with the label of sexy, desirable, and by some absolute pieces of human garbage... acceptable target. To deny that Experience comes at the cost of that attractive woman's safety. She has to know everything that will be thought of her every place she would go and she has to act accordingly.

Same goes for the LGBTQ+ community. Democrats. Children. And yes, Blacks. To deny or try to reason out that if I went to rural Georgia looking like I do, I wouldn't have a bad time is a academic conversation for you but a very real reality to me.

Ok.

I'm uneasy with police.

One of those have power that they far overstep, routinely abuse, and the regular citizen celebrates it as being apart of law and order. The other is BLM.

The question is who racialized the issue first. By your words, you say BLM. But ever since I paid attention to the news, I heard a lot of white pundits on the news calling for black leaders in the community to speak out against violence in urban centers.

Why?

Why don't Asian and/or latino pundits go on Fox News and demand for accountability for when white active shooters take countless lives? Why is the opioid epidemic been an illegal action that is met with warmth and understanding, while weed is still criminalized for only one group really? Why has almost everything been defined by the majority to blacks as separate and unequal, but people keep asking blacks why do they think about race?

If you want, I can answer. Because it's not academic to me. It's not a problem with a far away land that I really don't live in. It's my home. It's my actual life.

And it's the same.

It just SEEMS worse because now a lot more of the majority has finally been shown it. And because of their collective gasp of "Oh shit, the Blacks were telling the truth! How could we have known?!" has been so loud, the more these incidents crop up (The Officer siccing a cop on a surrendering, compliant suspect is just the latest one I could grab, but I'm sure there are others) the more that the idea that this is for some reason happening more now than ever before.

No. You just know about it more now. Do you think Rodney King was the first? He was the first filmed and made public conversation. Police knew how much they lost when they acted the way they normally do to blacks during the Civil rights filming of their tactics. That's why none of them want to be on film any more.

Because (and to use a conversation piece that has been used against us so much), if they weren't doing anything bad, why are they trying to hide?

And might I say? This here? This is exactly the reason why someone like me would even want to dabble in identity politics.

You do not live in the US.

You do not have to deal with the issues that Black Americans have to deal with.

And you're asking one who had to deal with all this BS this nation has to offer if he really needs to think about it that much.

If you don't feel that this causes someone like me to want to affirm and defend my culture because it seems like I always have to do so, you are sorely mistaken.

Apologies one more time. This will seem disjointed. I can not quote and post all I want to say.