UI professor: Dolezal case brings up possibility of changing racial identity

IOWA CITY - The concept that race is a social construct - rather than biological - is not new to University of Iowa law professor Angela Onwuachi-Willig, who has been researching the topic for years.

But the notion that race and racial identity can be fluid has received considerable national attention of late thanks to former Washington state NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal, who last week resigned as president of the Spokane chapter amid accusations she lied about her racial background.

Dolezal, 37, has said she identifies as black, even though she was born white and has white biological parents. On NBC's 'Today” show Tuesday, Dolezal did not deny changing how she looks at herself over the years, and Onwuachi-Willig said that's not necessarily uncommon or new.

'I do think a person's racial identity can change throughout their life,” said Onwuachi-Willig, explaining that a variety of factors can affect how people classify themselves or how others classify them - including employment, criminal history and family changes.

'It can change from year to year, from moment to moment and context to context, or space to space,” she said. 'How people are perceived by others can change because of what we associate with race.”

Onwuachi-Willig, who in 2013 published a book on the topic, likened race to money. A dollar holds value only because we say it does, she said, and no genes are common to all blacks or all whites.

'It's something that has meaning because we give it meaning,” she said.

Depending on skin tone, a person considered black in the United States could be considered white in another part of the world - like Africa or South America. And, Onwuachi-Willig said, a white person might start to change how they identify racially if they marry a black person or have black children, for example.

'We see a lot of people who are white and part of multiracial families begin to shift how they view their racial identity,” she said.

As a teenager, Dolezal's parents adopted three African-American children and one Haitian child, and she later married a black man and obtained legal custody of one of her adoptive black brothers. She now has two black sons, and Onwuachi-Willig said she sympathizes with the identity shift Dolezal might have experienced because of her multiracial family.

'She has suffered confusion over race and racial identity, as many people do,” Onwuachi-Willig said.

Still, Onwuachi-Willig said, Dolezal could have done things differently. She has admitted to not correcting reports labeling her as transracial, biracial and black on her way to the helm of an NAACP chapter.

'I don't think she should have lied about her race,” Onwuachi-Willig said. 'At some point, I want her to acknowledge how that can affect those who have lived as African American growing up.”

Dolezal did, in some ways, take on the burdens of the African-American community as an adult, Onwuachi-Willig said. But she still grew up with all the privilege of a white American and, as one, could have been an equally if not more powerful advocate for African Americans.

'On one hand I'm sympathetic to her, on the other hand, there are legitimate concerns about the lies,” Onwuachi-Willig said.

The racial markers that define people come with real consequences that many African Americans can't escape, she said.

'That is what's insulting about what she did,” Onwuachi-Willig said. 'At any point in the day, she could escape the burdens that come with blackness in a way I could never do and others could never do.”

That's where LaNeisha Waller takes issue with Dolezal's case. As a black 29-year-old living in Coralville, Waller said she's had to face certain realities that come with her minority status.

'I feel she made a choice, and it's an example of privilege to the highest degree,” Waller said. 'She decided to identify as black when it best benefited her. Who else could do that?”

Waller's boyfriend, TJ Boulet, is white and said his girlfriend and the prospect of having biracial children doesn't change how he associates racially.

'Do I associate more as black? No,” said Boulet, 29. 'But I have a greater sympathy and appreciation for what black people have to deal with.”

Onwuachi-Willig said she hopes cases such as the one involving Dolezal - along with the reality that America is becoming more diverse - will advance the national conversation around race as a social construct.

'It's important that people continue to understand the consequences of how we have constructed race,” she said.