Monday, April 30, 2018

The Review: The Rachel Divide



The Rachel Divide 8/10

Jasmine introduced me to a world of some crazy shit with this Rachel Dolezal documentary called The Rachel Divide that is on Netflix. Holy shit, you need to watch this. Everyone knows who she is, right? The White lady that started living her life as a Black woman and telling everyone she was Black. I thought that there was nothing else to this story but I was so very, very wrong. There is more to it than I could have imagined. If you made this shit up it would sound unbelievable, and sure enough there is a lot of stuff concerning this lady that sounds straight up like lies on top of lies.


There was so much more about Rachel's life to learn. Like the fact that she adopted her younger brother and sister and saved them from her ultra religious parents. How religious? They listed Jesus Christ as an attendant or something on her birth certificate. That religious. Her older brother was accused of molesting her adopted sister but the case, that seemed very open and shut, was stopped by Rachel's whole series of lies and people questioning her that the case never proceeded. I mean, come on. There were parts where I would start to get an understanding of her and then she would say something or someone would point something out (like her suing Howard University because she was White and accused them of not admitting her because of that) and my view of her would drop. When you have so many people doubting you so hard that when you get death threats they stop and go “Hmm...really?” you have to reevaluate your life.


Then there are her poor kids. Holy shit, I felt bad for these guys. She has the older one that she adopted that ends up leaving and leaves with a statement like he may not come back anytime soon. Her 13 year old that sometimes acts like he is 4 seemed to be the most logical at one point regarding how she handles the media and what she says. She ends up having a baby with a guy that tells her that allegedly tells her that she had to either marry him or have an abortion. She chose to have the baby and he is nowhere to be seen. Hell, everything this woman says should have “alleged” attached to it. This show has a series of clips from talk shows she went on, her at home doing art and getting her book together, and checking the internet and managing to troll herself harder than anyone I've ever seen. Then she doubles down on her Black.


Jasmine had me watch the last part where she is in the bathroom cutting off her braids and I was thinking “Okay,she got her shit together.” I was so...so wrong. She dyes her hair black, adds extensions, and heads to the DMV to change her name to Nkechi Amare Diallo. Jasmine pointed out a previous scene where when wanting to name her new son she did not want to give him a name hard to pronounce or keep him from getting a job. And she chose that for herself. While not being able to find work. Her son tells her that she does things that make her life harder and she refuses to listen. This documentary made me feel like I was losing my mind. I shouted into my blanket at one point. I didn't even want her to say “Okay, guys, I'm not Black.” I want her in therapy. The life she had before all this shit was not healthy! She needs to be in therapy if she isn't. And watching how this affects her kids sucks. The issue of being trans-racial is discussed as well as what it means to be “Black.” Check this crazy shit out.

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