The Fire This Time

Kevin Young’s fragmentary essay begins with a quote from the movie The Jerk, starring Steve Martin. In the film, Martin’s character, a white man, claims he “was born a poor black child…” (101), a comic statement that links blackness with misfortune. This white conception recalls Rachel Dolezal, the white woman who claimed to be black and was publicly outed in 2015. 

White people have historically used blackface as a costume, which suggests they see black skin as an aberration of white skin. Young discusses his upcoming book, which explores con artists of various kinds. He wonders if Dolezal fits with his book’s theme or not. He lists joke titles that certain Twitter users suggested for Dolezal’s memoir. A black person’s skin is an inevitable element of their identity, one that attracts prejudice.

All black people diverge from common conceptions of blackness; furthermore, unity among black people surpasses “stereotypical qualities that may be reproducible, imitable, even marketable” (103). Americans passing for a race other than their own began with Thomas Jefferson. 

Young wryly notes that one does not elect to be black, nor is one hired. He jokes, “It’s more like a long internship with a chance of advancement” (104). The ABC television show Fresh Off the Boat presents an Asian character searching for American identity, which he locates in hip-hop music. Once historical Irish and Jewish immigrants used blackface, white Americans were more likely to consider these groups white as well. 

Young ironically compares himself to Rachel Dolezal, acquiring blackness over time. She mimics black skin tone with dark bronzer and wigs, suggesting she considers black identity as merely aesthetic. Young considers the possibility that Dolezal’s black acquaintances knew she was white and abided by her behavior. Some African Americans look white, but other black people can tell their true identity. The white establishment once considered any trace of African heritage as blackness, which determines how African Americans remain generally inclusive. Dolezal’s racial presentation is not new or uncommon. 

Young speaks with a black bank manager who appears white and references elements of African American culture to test Young’s response and assure him of her identity. Although white people can describe and appreciate elements of black culture, that doesn’t change their race. Young describes a white woman in his church whom the congregation embraced but did not consider black. 

Johnny Otis and a female owner of a black baseball team were both white people who passed as black. Young wonders how their black acquaintances justified treating these individuals as African Americans, even when they knew their true identities. 

The African American congregants at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, accepted the white man who took his seat, sat a few moments, and opened fire on people he believed were aggressors against his race. Although Thomas Jefferson also despised and dismissed black people, he had an affair and fathered children with an African American woman named Sally Hemmings. Similarly, the openly racist politician Strom Thurmond fathered a child with a black woman, representing a paradox that has persisted throughout American history. Young wonders why Dolezal could not have been a white woman with black children, as have many white Americans before her. 

Black identity comes not from the emotions or the intellect but is “a way of being” (109). Dolezal might have expressed her desire to be black in private, as other white people do, but instead she impersonated an African American person and taught black studies as if she were a leader in that community. Dolezal’s many media appearances occurred days before the shooting in Charleston, and Young sees racial misconceptions in both events. Charleston pushed Dolezal into the background as the country grieved, although a Confederate flag remained on state government grounds in South Carolina. A black woman removed it, but a black man was assigned to hoist it again. 

The state ruled to remove the Confederate flag from use, causing people to buy up the remaining supply. The Charleston assassin supported use of the Confederate flag. Young expresses befuddlement at Southern people’s devotion to Confederate iconography. At his first teaching job at the University of Georgia, people often mistook him for a student, which he later interpreted as their surprise that he was a black professor. 

Dolezal as the white mother of black children would prove a richer standing in life than her posing as black. Young continues, “You get the feeling that, for Dolezal, blackness equals hiding” (111). An African American woman who works a housekeeping job does not feel that way about her identity. Some consider black identity invisible, but the perpetrator of the Charleston shooting saw black skin as the sign of an enemy. For Rachel Dolezal, black identity might disguise her discomfort with her own identity. 

Dolezal’s former exploits, including a suit against Howard University, appear to Young “the whitest thing ever” (112). He compares her outbursts to those of a white person who witnesses racism against their black friend. While the white person raves, the black person, well-acquainted with such occurrences, does not overreact. Young’s personal encounters with racism turn white listeners silent when he shares them. Once, Young’s white neighbor using a racial slur against him, but Young behaved normally.

In graduate school, Dolezal plagiarized paintings with black subjects, which allowed her actual identity to vanish. Young wonders if Dolezal was self-righteous. Dolezal’s contradicting narratives and fabulous inventions, such as her birth in a teepee, resemble those of a conventional imposter.

Other Dolezal claims include stories of abuse, which she compared with slavery, and alleging her former residence in South Africa. Her overall narrative tends toward that of a victim, a quality she might equate with blackness. White people posing as black represents, most problematically, making fun of or pitying African Americans. President Barack Obama received racist posts on his new Twitter feed around the same time as the Dolezal scandal. Young remarks that the public pays more attention to a person in blackface than they would a black person (115). 

White people might consider black identity as existing in a binary: either comic or tragic. Young wonders how Dolezal, who ran her local chapter of the NAACP, would have reacted to the Charleston shooting if no one had outed her. Young states that he “came out as black as a teenager” (115) after being just a boy, an identity that persisted afterward as well. 

At the funeral for those lost after the Charleston shooting, President Obama sang “Amazing Grace,” a hymn by a former slave trader that later became a slave spiritual. Young jokes that people desire blackness because it’s fun, then urges readers not to share this. He describes his daily routine according to his black identity.