Lies, Damned Lies, and the Complicated Accounting of Identity [Counterpoint]
When I received Gyasi’s piece, I thought long and hard about how to respond.
His piece felt a bit like a slap – exactly how were we supposed to evaluate Queen Chief Warhorse’s credentials on the fly, especially after she had been vetted as a speaker by an organization intent on working locally with organizations that impact their communities? Why would we doubt her, just based on her face? I know it’s been quite a few years, but Racialicious started as a blog called Mixed Media Watch, which spent a lot of time exploring how phenotypes can be deceiving. It wasn’t so long ago that Addicted to Race boasted a “racial spy” section, which featured mixed race people recounting stories of receiving stereotypes intended for others. So we would never, ever question someone’s identity on phenotype alone. If we did that, we would have challenged Brandann for not looking properly Indian instead of just letting her tell her story.
However, Gyasi is correct – there are many, many people who have claimed to speak for Indian Country who have fabricated their identities, and we need to denounce those who would use an indigenous identity to seek profit for themselves. But are the answers so cut and dry to the point where they should be immediately obvious to all outside of the various nations? Over the years at Racialicious, we’ve come across many places in which someone’s heritage has been declared false. And each time, we try to figure out how to proceed. But the truth isn’t always easy to understand – and questions of identity are far more complicated than the Young Black Teenagers publicity stunt.
From Peggy Seltzer to Tinsel Corey, from Taylor Lautner to Cher, and from Princess Pale Moon to Andrea Smith, public proclamations of Native identity are often swiftly challenged and debated. So let’s examine the ones who made headlines, and then apply what we’ve learned to Queen Chief Warhorse.
This wouldn’t be the first time that someone has claimed Native background for fame and profit.
The easiest example to debunk from recent history is the Peggy Seltzer scandal. In 2008, one “Margaret B. Jones” published a memoir called “Love and Consequences” about her life as a mixed Native-White girl who fell into gang life as a foster child placed in a black home. The problem? The memoir was a fake.
While most reviewers focused on Seltzer’s affectation (see the video that Harry Allen wisely copied), quite a few missed that she had chosen to fabricate a Quinault affiliation.
Now, Seltzer wasn’t debunked because of the things she wore or the color of her skin – people (who unfortunately were not the ones publishing this memoir) figured out the truth by finding friends and family members who quickly copped to the truth.
Yet, even still, some chose to defend her bizarre appropriated experience. From Fishbowl LA:
Gordon Sayre, the professor at U of Oregon who taught Peggy Seltzer, semi-defends the practice of false memoir writing:
If Peggy’s assertion that she had spent part of her childhood on the Quinault reservation was untrue, if the paper she had written about this experience was based on false premises, at least it was backed up by enough research to be convincing.
There’s a moral assertion–lying is okay, provided you’re good at it. Or else, a professor of Native American literature knows little or nothing about the lives of actual Native Americans.
So let’s look at another well known example, that was also eventually sidelined. After releasing her song “Half-Breed,” pop star Cher began claiming that she was part Cherokee.
However, while her song and video made it sound like Cher had lived the mixed Native struggle, it turns out that Cher is actually Armenian and white. As Mental Floss explains:
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