JOHN CURLEY

Is it OK for white people to steal black culture?

Jun 16, 2015, 12:58 PM | Updated: 3:14 pm

Former NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal appears on the “Today” show set on Tuesday. (AP)...

Former NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal appears on the "Today" show set on Tuesday. (AP)

(AP)

OK, so Rachel Dolezal told the “Today” show she’s black on Tuesday, so now what?

KIRO Radio’s John Curley says now it’s time to start identifying what black culture is and how it’s different from white culture, and decide whether white people are allowed to borrow from black culture.

Ask Elvis Presley, Tom suggested. Presley has been criticized for stealing music and dance moves from African-American artists of his time.

“The idea of a white guy all of a sudden acting ‘black’ and then trying to sell themselves in the rap world, people often get upset about that as well,” Curley pointed out.

This happens in the art community a lot, Tom said. Eminem has said he identifies more with the African-American community than with the white community. Quentin Tarantino has gotten into trouble as a movie maker for the same thing.

Related: Dave Ross says Dolezal is most fascinating woman in America

Tom Hanks’ son, Chester Hanks, a rapper, was recently in trouble for using the N-word and defending it.

Meanwhile, Tom points out that in 2002 Dolezal filed a lawsuit against a historically black college claiming she was discriminated against because she was a white woman.

Dolezal sued Howard University, where she attended graduate school. Back then, she went by her married name Rachel Moore.

She asserted the school blocked her appointment as a teaching assistant, failed to hire her as an art teacher after her graduation, and removed some of her art pieces from exhibition in favor of African-American students.

A 2005 District of Columbia appeals court later threw out the lawsuit upholding a lower court’s ruling that found no evidence of discrimination.

John Curley on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM
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Is it OK for white people to steal black culture?