Rachel Dolezal Is Going to Be at a Natural Hair Rally, and People Have Feelings About It

Rachel Dolezal is ruffling feathers once again now that she has been announced as a headliner for the Naturally Isis for Braid on Economic Liberty March & Rally in Dallas. And Isis Brantley, the woman behind the march, is catching quite a bit of flack for giving Dolezal such a prominent feature at this event.

Brantley, who owns the Institute of Ancestral Braiding in Addison, Texas, says she didn’t know Dolezal’s controversial background before booking her. According to the Daily Beast, Brantley saw Dolezal’s mad braiding skills on television and thought she would be a great addition to the event. But members of the natural hair community aren’t buying it, considering Dolezal only got on TV in the first place because she was caught lying about being a black woman. We wouldn’t have known she was good with hair if she wasn’t pretending to be something she’s not. Dallas resident Kerin Rodriguez, who has gone to Brantley’s events before, says that she saw the hair guru post something to Facebook in May asking whether or not Dolezal should be involved “on a team of organizers who would help plan a natural hair event and march that will take place in Washington, D.C., next year.”

Although Dolezal’s story outraged a good amount of black people, there was one thing folks couldn’t deny: Homegirl can hook up some hair. As Jezebel’s Kara Brown wrote when Dolezal’s story broke, “Look, I can be mad at Rachel Dolezal about a lot of things, but I can’t be mad about her hair game. Rachel, girl, you did that.”

But the issue people have with Dolezal’s presence at the event is that part of Brantley’s activism work has had to do with, as her bio says, “the fight for preserving cultural identity for African-Americans in her decade long battle with the state of Texas regarding anti-braiding regulations,” and “teaching scores of young black women how to resurrect themselves from poverty by following her lead in the natural hair care business.” Some of the women who have a problem with Dolezal say that her involvement, as a white woman, undermines what Brantley ultimately stands for.

“This woman lied and not only that, she filed a reverse discrimination lawsuit as a WHITE woman while she was at a Black college,” a commenter on Brantley’s Facebook page wrote. “How is this ancestral braiding … do u not see how u just gave someone and every other stealer, a cultural stealer, a pass for cultural misrepresentation, cultural stealing, and cultural appropriation? Do not say one word, not one single word when she takes over and makes more money than you, claims this as her own, and u r on the sidelines.”

But others aren’t as incensed about the pick. “Why get mad at her for admiring our beautiful culture, she is a civil rights activist, and besides her and one brother, her other brothers are African-American, through the love of adoption,” another person opined. “Not all Caucasian people are bad people. Some of them I don’t even see them as stealing things from us. I believe some of them really see our culture for what it is and the beauty that is in it, and just want to be a part of it!!!”

But mostly, Dolezal’s involvement seems more like a ploy for publicity than anything else. And given that people are talking about it, it looks like it’s worked. Brantley says Dolezal will be in attendance more as an ally and personality and less as a keynote speaker.

Still, the fact remains, Dolezal will always and forever be a white woman, no matter how much she wishes to pay homage to her imagined or barely there African ancestry. That said, she is also a woman who is making money as a braider after losing her job at Eastern Washington University. She might not be a black woman, but she is certainly using braiding as an avenue of economic liberty, which is part of what the rally is about. So while you can argue that her presence there is controversial, it’s not entirely nonsensical.

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