ONTD Original: Famous Cases of People Who Pretended to Be A Different Race
Why are some white people so damn eager to be oppressed? Some white folk even went so far as to pretend to be another ethnicity or race. Here, we take a look at some of the most famous of these examples.
Hilaria Baldwin
https://instagram.com/p/Bs5xCIRFMC4
Born Hilary Hayward-Thomas, Hilary adopted the fake name "Hilaria" and pretended to be of Hispanic descent, though her family is of "English, Irish, French Canadian, German, and Slovak" descent. Sure, "Hispanic" is not a race, but she even hinted at being Latina. Like in her Instagram video where she compares her "dark" skin to her daughter's white skin.
Rachel Dolezal
Click to viewclick the vid and it will jump to the moment of truth
Perhaps the most famous example on this list, Dolezal is a white woman who attended Howard University, an HBCU, and sued the school for discriminating against her because she was a white woman. She pretended for years to be a black woman, even becoming a chapter president of the NAACP. She was revealed as a fake in a notorious interview that went viral around the world. She claims that she is "trans-racial" and "identifies" as black.
Espera Oscar de Corti/ "Iron Eyes Cody"
An Italian actor named Espera pretended to be Native American to make it in Hollywood. He gained notoriety as his alias "Iron Eyes Cody" after starring in an anti-littering PSA in the 1970s.
C.B. Cebulski/ "Akira Yoshida"
This white dude is C.B. Cebulski, an editor at Marvel Comics. Marvel outlaws the practice of editors also writing, so he cooked up a fake identity as Akira Yoshida, a Japanese man who loved American comics.
Michael Derrick/ "Yi-Fen Chou"
Another white guy named Michael Derrick Hudson pretended to be a Chinese-American female poet named Yi-Fen Chou. His poems kept getting rejected, so he decided to masquerade as an Asian woman.
Margaret Seltzer/ Margaret B. Jones
Seltzer, a white woman, pretended to be a Native American member of the violent Bloods gang who would cook meth for them. In interviews, she would speak in fake AAVE. Her sister recognized her photo in the media and ratted on her.
Jessica Krug/ "Jess La Bombalera"
Jessica Krug, who also called herself "Jess La Bombalera," pretended for decades to be black and latina. She would sometimes fake a Caribbean accident and she referred to herself as "an unrepentant child of the hood," even though she is from Kansas.
Martha Griffith Browne/ "Ann"
"Ann" Martha Griffith Browne was a white former slave owner who became an abolitionist. In 1857, she pretended to be a black slave named Ann and published a fake autobiography called "Autobiography of a Female Slave."
Kent Johnson/ "Araki Yasusada"
A white guy from Illinois named Kent Johnson pretended to be a WWII survivor named Araki Yasusada. His work was printed in several prestigious publications before his identity was discovered.
Vijay Chokalingam
The younger brother of Mindy Kaling pretended to be black so he could gain entrance to medical school. He claimed that quotas limited the chances of Indian-Americans to get into med school, so he pretended to be black.
ALLEGEDLY Shaun King
Jeffrey Shaun King is a black rights activist who, if you believe several credible allegations, is actually white. He has two white parents listed on his birth certificate, but claims that his mother had an affair with a black man. He is very litigious, so this is all ALLEGED.
Alexandre Ouiary/ "Tao Hongjing"
This may shock you, but another white boy pretended to be a different race to gain some cred. French artist Alexandre Ouiary pretended for more than a decade to make art inspired by his "oriental" identity.
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp claimed to have "Cherokee or Creek" heritage on his grandmother's side. However, this is apparently not true, and Native American leaders have denounced him.
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