Commentary
Throughout history, many have suppressed and “passed” stigmatized identities in order to avoid material harm or to gain social acceptance from oppressor groups. The Jews passed by for the Gentiles. White mixed race; indigenous for non-indigenous people. Most of these counterfeiters sought the greatest anonymity possible. The more they blend in, the less scrutiny they attract. Their motivation-the fear of oppressors-was rooted in reality.
Today it is exactly the opposite. Personal information fraud by official oppressors who pass because they are officially oppressed can drive perpetrators from anonymity to high positions with social and material rewards. What are their motives? do not be afraid. envy.
The habitat of modern counterfeiters is most often colleges, and he or more and more (as the opportunities for high-altitude women surge) give her a large amount of money to promote the interests of the groups identified by the counterfeiters. Will be paid.
American racial enthusiast Rachel Dolezal was outed in 2015 after spending years as a black man. Not only was a former teacher of Africana studies able to fool her college, but Dolezal managed to hint himself to the leader of the NAACP branch before her card house collapsed. rice field.
Similarly, Canada’s Carrie Bourassa, who recently went out as a “pretending” Metis, worked to advance the fate of indigenous peoples. During his tenure at the University of Saskatchewan and on vacation as the Science Director of the Indigenous Health Division of the Canadian Institute of Health, Brassa successfully passed as an indigenous people for many years.
An indigenous heritage colleague examined Brassa’s genealogy only when Brassa began guilding lilies and raised her hereditary claims at links allegedly containing the Anishinaabe and Tlingit indigenous peoples. bottom. She warned the CBC of her findings and urged their own independent investigation, resulting in the exposure of Bourassa’s entire European DNA.
Bourassa’s epic deception has elicited shock and criticism from indigenous and non-indigenous critics. Hale Mary’s revisionist statement, which provides fig leaves for her claim (“custom adoption” rather than blood volume), has leveled off.
It’s no wonder that the main motivation behind Bourassa’s elaborate charade is rapid career advancement, and most observers did. However, I think that explanation is not enough.
First, it is a demanding task in itself to maintain a “personality” for the life expectancy of a public figure. Although the average person in Bourassa’s true intelligence and abilities does not consider accelerated career progress alone to be a sufficient reason for such an investment in time and effort when the alternative was not a penalty. , Even if the pace is slow and there is no public evaluation.
And second, anyone guided by the undisclosed ability to weigh risks against the benefits of her situation-her own family lived evidence of her deception- Would certainly have expected and moaned before the strong potential of the final disclosure, in fact the possibility. With all the shame and humiliation, such a revelation needed and accompanied it.
Only individuals driven by extreme psychological needs need to internalize her myth, as truth pursues such a reckless course of action. So I haven’t seen a calm calculation in Brassa’s delusions. Rather, I see a very ambitious but psychologically vulnerable person whose mental vulnerabilities have made her an easily poured vessel for certain idealistic tensions in our culture.
A reported statement issued by Bourassa through an anonymous group claiming the right to “self-identify as an indigenous people within a larger family of indigenous peoples in Canada” provides clues to support this hypothesis. She reportedly claimed that the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) “confirmed and legally endorsed her self-identification as an indigenous people.”
Of course, UNDRIP, which strangely doesn’t really define the word “indigenous”, doesn’t do that. The hints probably refer to Article 33, stating that “indigenous peoples have the right to determine their identity and membership according to their customs and traditions.” People, not individuals.
Brassa may really believe she is an “indigenous”, as her mind fuses two dominant but contradictory belief systems that guide the present cultural moment: gender fluidity. And Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT is based on immutable genetically embedded traits such as race and indigenous blood volume, whereas gender ideology is based on immutable biological factors such as chromosomes and gametes. It shows that it is meaningless except for a sense of subjective identity.
So, on the other hand, Brassa was educated as a white woman to believe that she had an original sin that could never be eradicated. Meanwhile, she was educated to believe that her emotions were the only arbitrator of her identity.
What Bourassa did was wrong, but can’t we sympathize with her? Government, education, law and medical services, the most influential institutions in our society, deserve to establish both of these harmful awakened belief systems in our pedagogy and policy. I approve it. For some reason, take a sensitive child with an unstable self-sensation. Tell the child to believe that nothing about his or her body may be taken as a clue to his or her “real” identity. At the same time, the message that skin color and DNA (the only sign of one’s “real” identity in all but gender) is a sure sign of lifelong victims or the guilt of an irreversible mass murder. I confess.
The two messages are contradictory, but one provides material rewards and respect from the cultural elite, as well as liberation from painful sins when applied to indigenous peoples and freed from gender. So it’s no wonder Carrie Brassa synthesized an individual. Myths from them; it is strange that there are very few copycats.
Bourassa’s glitz was her downfall. At the 2019 TEDx Talk, “Morningstar Bear,” dressed in traditional Aboriginal costume and dramatically dressed in feathers, choked on hereditary pride. “I’m Bear Clan. I’m Anissina Abemethis in the Treaty 4 region,” she announced as ecstatically awakening her applause.
The devotion to the role of Bourassa was the British-born Canadian pretending to be Gray Owl (1888-1938), also known as Archie Belaney, who became known as the “most famous Canadian creature” in the 1930s. Reminds me of. The indigenous people, where Bellany lived, knew he was a charlatan, but his effective conservation efforts brought their silence.
Today’s compulsory talkative digital Panopticon has made protective silence a dilapidated luxury for fraudsters. It’s a fact of life. Alas, Brassa was instructed to believe that “emotions” could defeat the facts. Now everyone is equally educated. But unlike “everyone,” Brassa drew her “feeling” identity to extreme but logical conclusions.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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Barbara Kay has been a regular National Post columnist since 2003 and has contributed to other publications. Her latest writing project is co-authored with Linda Blade in the book “Unsporting: How Trans Activism and Science Denial is Destroying Sport.”
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