Ok, so I watched a new episode of OITNB, and not clear on the connection to this thread.
I also don’t remember what was going on with Alex, and why she is back.
?
It’s a play on words, @emeraldkity4. 
Why should it not surprise me that the NAACP says that they stand behind Rachel? Some people are very comfortable with liars, and it doesn’t bother them a bit. Just look at the people we elect, who continue to lie to us, even though it is clear that even they know they are lying. People just keep voting for them.
This is all a personal matter, of course, and they are just respecting her privacy by not commenting further. And first, Rachel says, “I feel like I owe [the NAACP] executive committee conversation” about what she called a “multi-layered issue.” I wonder if that’s fancy wording for, “Okay, I lied about a large number of things, but it’s really not my fault. It’s my parent’s fault, societies fault, the injustice that I have to witness.”
“Hate language sent through mail and social media along with credible threats continue to be a serious issue for our units in the Pacific Northwest and across the nation. We take all threats seriously and encourage the FBI and the Department of Justice to fully investigate each occurrence.”
I wonder what they think about Rachel’s apparently bogus claims of a noose on her doorstep, a robbery where her guns disappeared, and the swastika drawn on her door? Maybe it’s not important if they are true are not, because it probably happened to someone, somewhere.
I’m slow, but finally got it.
More funny:
Some people?
Pretty much all people, I’d say, are willing to overlook dishonesty if the person is someone they otherwise support.
I think the quality and quantity of dishonesty involved matters a lot. “No, I can’t tell that you gained 10 pounds.” Is vastly different from knowingly presenting yourself as a member of another race, claiming experiences that you didn’t have, or representing your brother as your son. The former is normal behavior. The latter is is either mental illness or complete lack of character. I don’t know too many people who would vote for someone who would lie about something like their own race. Actually, that isn’t true. People in Massachusetts were able to vote for Elizabeth Warren, choosing to present her as something of a buffoon, rather than a craven liar. But even there, claiming Native American heritage back in the family tree is something of a national mythology, where being a blond, light-eyed, white woman with white parents telling people you are black is just so far beyond ludicrous to be jaw dropping.
I think there are things that people can rationalize. Credit it to exaggeration, spin, enthusiasm. But blatant, constant lying about basic things? Some people seem to decide that it’s just fine, as long as what the person is otherwise saying what they agree with. But not everyone finds that excusable.
Yeah, there are different levels of dishonesty. There are lies that end up killing people or cost them their livelihoods. There are lies that misrepresent in a big way (Dolezal) and in a little way (Warren). There are lies that stick in your craw because of how they affected other people (I would put both Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich in this group) and there are lies that simply don’t matter that much. My point remains…ALL people overlook foibles and dishonesty if there is something else in a person they are willing to support. Such is human nature.
A foible is a minor weakness, shortcoming, imperfection. We all have those. But we aren’t all blatant liars. I would not support someone like that, even if they otherwise said all the right things. If you don’t have any character, what do you have? People can’t trust what you say if you constantly lie. I would not overlook that, even in someone that I loved. Thankfully, the people in my life, though they have minor imperfections like us all, at least have integrity.
Who says it’s “just fine?”
I’m not saying that you consider it to be “just fine,” jazzymom, but there are certainly people I know who are perfectly comfortable with it. And I belive there are plenty of others out there just like them. Blatant lying is inconsequential if I otherwise agree with you.
If she has been “passing” as black for a long time, do we know that her stories of discrimination are in fact lies? (I really don’t know: I’m asking.) How has she done as the head of the local NAACP? Just wondering. What matters and what doesn’t matter?
What will knock Dolezal out is not necessarily misrepresenting herself as black with a black father on Facebook, etc…its going to be the reported hate crime incidents if those prove to be fake. That is unforgivable.
But for the Spokane NAACP to say, right now, that they stand behind Dolezal is not out of line, imo. They will support her I think until it becomes clear that she faked hate crime reports and that will be the end. No one can look the other way on that – it’s too dangerous to be dishonest about that sort of thing.
“How has she done as the head of the local NAACP? Just wondering. What matters and what doesn’t matter?”
According to the NAACP, she has done a good job. So apparently, nothing else matters to them.
However, the answer to that question is pretty subjective. In my opinion, making false police reports about terrible racist things done to you matters. Claiming to be abused by your family and your ex husband (if it’s not true) matters. Claiming you are of a minority background to help you gain a position or a scholarship matters. Lying to your students about growing up poor and abused matters. Using your lies to set yourself up as one of the most prominent black women in the area matters. But that’s just me.
And you can’t counter it with anything positive and constructive that she might have done in that community…what contributions led to her being selected as president because you don’t know what those are. But presumably they do.
@busdriver11, those things matter to me, also. I find false abuse claims particularly troubling. But so far I haven’t seen evidence that any of those things are actually true. I cannot claim to have read everything that has been written on the subject, though.
IMO, lying, cheating and stealing is wrong. (Not claiming she did all of these things) But we all know it can be ambiguous or at least something we may be inclined to overlook. If a very good student cheats on a test because s/he did not have time to study due to much needed employment, is it okay? No, but s/he would probably haved aced it anyway. If someone steals to feed their family, is it okay? No, but most of us would probably let the stealing person go. We all tell " little white lies." Even if a parent beat up, or maybe even killed, the person who raped his or her little girl or boy, we, while not condoning, might be able to empathize.
I do not see how this persons dishonesty is ambiguous or fuzzy. As the NAACP has said, a person does not need to be African American or Black to be a leader. She could have done it without the extensive lies and deceits.
And just because she is good at what she does, does not excuse the lies and deceits. Lance Armstrong was a great cyclist. But he lied and deceived. There are too numerous baseball players to mention who also were great players but lied and deceived.
Well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see what ends up coming out. We all know how often the press gets the facts wrong, in their hurry to get the story out, quite often. Though I wonder if this is just the tip of the iceberg.
@busdriver11, all I know is that whenever I make an assertion to my son the journalist, he says, “Source??”