*DJ Khaled voice* AND ANOTHER ONE!!!
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Can you imagine the full-throated cackles you would get if you told Black people 50 years ago that by the year 2020, white people would be losing their jobs, credibility, social circles and self respect by pretending to be niggas?
A white person who is not Rachel Dolezal or Jessica Krug has become the latest star of the ongoing saga: White People Who Want to be Oppressed So Badly They Decided to be Black.
University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student CV Vitolo-Haddadโwho uses non-binary they/them pronounsโissued an apology Monday after they spent years โposturing as a person of color while working as a teaching assistant and acting as co-president of UW-Madisonโs chapter of the Teaching Assistantsโ Association graduate student workerโs union,โ the Daily Cardinal reports.
From the Cardinal:
Vitolo-Haddad, who worked at UW-Madisonโs School of Journalism and Mass Communication, actually identifies as Southern Italian/Sicilian. However when certain individuals made assumptions about their race, they failed to correct people who identified them as Black and relied on their parentโs โconflicting storiesโ of their heritage, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
Last Sunday, Vitolo-Haddad released their first apology on the blogging website Medium, announcing their resignation as teaching assistant and co-president of the TAA.
โThe harm I caused is a result of my lack of courage, a preference for being vague and contradictory, uncertain and insecure. I want to make amends for every ounce of heartbreak and betrayal,โ reads Vitolo-Haddadโs first post.
Vitolo-Haddad issued a second apology on Sept. 8, titled โA Second Step,โ which intended to provide a clearer statement of their identity and what they did wrong.
โWhat I know now is that perception is not reality. Race is not flat, it is a social construct rife with contradictions,โ Vitolo-Haddad writes. โFighting racism never required dissociating myself from whiteness. In fact, it derailed the cause by centering my experience.โ
I mean... I suppose if I was feeling very, very, extremely mother fucking DELUSIONAL generous, I might buy that people who saw Vitolo-Haddad as racially ambiguous might have taken a wild shot in the dark (pun intended) and guessed, of all things, that they were Black. Sure, why not? And as far as them relying on their parentโs โconflicting storiesโ of their heritage, what white person doesnโt take it at face value when their drunk uncle tells them theyโre 1/36th Cherokeee on their great, great, great, great grandfatherโs favorite slaveโs auntyโs side?
Vitolo-Haddad admits that they benefited โsociallyโ from posing as a person of color (they also didnโt correct people who thought they were Latino, according to the New York Post), but they said they never identified as non-white on paper or applied for any scholarships or awards designated for people of color.
Of course, the TAA released a statement apologizing for facilitating Vitolo-Haddadโs ruse saying that they โhave unknowingly rewarded the toxic opportunism of performing Blackness.โ
I guess you can give Vitolo-Haddad that theyโre not quite as bad as Krugโwho received her doctorate in history from UW-Madison, according to the New Yorkerโonly because Krug explictly claimed a Black identity, championed herself as a Black activist, and even went so far as to borrow a Great Value blaccent from whoever sold Iggy Azalea hers. Itโs also widely believed that Krug had to be outed by a someone else as the second coming of Dolezal before she made the decision to publish that weak-ass mea culpa and resign from her position as a professor at George Washington University.
Thereโs just one thing about Dolezal, Krug, Vitolo-Haddad and all the others we all know are out there that continues to truly baffle me: They all appear to have forgotten how much easier it is to just be white in America.
Straight From
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