Steve Sailer writes:
A prominent recent example of refashioning one’s racial affect is New Yorker journalist Malcolm Gladwell, who was generally perceived as a white conservative when he arrived from Canada and began his career with The American Spectator.
But after his 2000 best-seller, The Tipping Point , he grew a giant Sideshow Bob-like Afro. (…) Gladwell claims that the ’fro led to his being hassled by The Man, and that inspired his 2005 best-seller, Blink
. But calling attention to the fact that his mother was from Jamaica’s mulatto middle class certainly hasn’t hurt his popularity as a sales-conference speaker. The best-known celebrity to have transformed his ethnic (rather than racial) identity as an adult is the President of the United States.
SLATE on Mark Stebbins:
Before Rachel Dolezal, there was Stockton, California’s Mark Stebbins. In 1983, Stebbins won election to the Stockton City Council in a largely black and Latino district. During the campaign, when asked about his racial identity, he said he was black. But after the election, one of his defeated opponents—a larger-than-life local figure named Ralph White, who called himself “the black messiah of Stockton”—argued that Stebbins should be recalled from office because he’d lied about his race and was actually white.
Stebbins is indeed white, and he admitted as much in interviews with the media outlets (including national publications like Ebony and People) that covered his story after White demanded the recall. “As far as a birth certificate goes, I’m white,” he told Ebony. “My grandparents were white. My parents are white. … But I’m black.” He said he simply felt black—”culturally, socially, genetically.” A community activist before his council run, Stebbins (like Dolezal) was a member of the NAACP. He ultimately lost his recall election narrowly, though many in the black community continued to support him. (Ebony spoke to Stebbins’ barber, a black man, who cleared him of Ralph White’s allegation that his curly, Afro-like hair was permed. “Mark doesn’t put anything on his hair. A white boy with a permanent? Nope.”)
Speaking of hair, I’m indebted to Laura Rosen Cohen for tracking down an example of Dolezal’s wig for sale.
I dunno:
The sales copy sounds kinda… racist to me!
Remy hair is a superior human hair grade that is collected from a hair donor. (…) Indian remy hair come from individuals that live in India. The hair feel good, It is finer and softer than Chinese hair.
