Black people of the world: Trans black woman Rachel Dolezal know what you're going through

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"Trans black" woman Rachel Dolezal — former NAACP official and author of a new book In Full Color, who now goes by the name of Nkechi Amare Diallo — journeyed to South Africa to get in touch with her racial roots and explain to black South Africans how hard it was to be "authentic black" despite being completely white. Apparently, her trans-racial spiel went over about as well there as it did here.

Dolezal/Diallo was invited by a self-identified "bishop" to speak at the inaugural Quest for Non Racial South African Society Dialogue in Johannesburg last week in front of a largely black audience of students from the University of Johannesburg as well as various activists. According to The Daily Mail, the response was enthusiastic but in all the wrong ways.

When Dolezal gave the audience her standard self-description — that she was "born to white parents" but is "trans black" with an "authentic black identity" — the students reportedly "tutted loudly and shook their heads in disbelief."

The Daily Mail provides some highlights of the reactions from not only black South Africans but one white transgender advocate whose organization operates in South Africa. One particular comment sums up the reception of Dolezal succinctly: "Only a white person could claim blackness and tour the world talking to blacks about blackness," said one attendee of Dolezal's talk.

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