What’s key is that you can’t choose your position in the hierarchy. The political designation of race is a function of power—or, put differently, you are whatever the dominant group says you are. A Nigerian immigrant might not identify with black Americans, but she’s still “black,” regardless of what she says, and if she gets pulled over by the police, that identity will matter most. And on the other end, a black American with dark skin and African features could identify as white with her friends, but in society, she’s black, regardless of how she feels. . . .

To belong to the black community is to inherit a rich and important culture; to be racially black is to face discrimination and violence.

. . .

We don’t know the entirety of [Rachel] Dolezal’s story, and we will likely learn more. If it’s troubling, it’s at least partly because it feels like Dolezal is adopting the culture without carrying the burdens. And with the fake father and the fake children, it seems like she’s deceiving people for the sake of an à la carte blackness, in which you take the best parts, and leave the pain aside.

Got it. Black = impuissance and being permanently subjected to violence/discrimination. If this disappears, one’s blackness disappears. This explains why prominent, conservative blacks such as Clarence Thomas, Ben Carson, Tim Scott, Condoleezza Rice, Thomas Sowell and Allen West are so often labeled “Oreos” or “Uncle Toms” by prominent, liberal/progressive blacks. If a black person doesn’t constantly wallow around in his/her “blackness,” he/she isn’t genuinely “black.”