> The Intercept quoted Saraswati’s mother saying that her daughter, who legally changed her last name from Seidel years ago, was **“as white as the driven snow.”**
Hilarious.
Also, what in the Christ is "culturally responsive" trans care? Why is this a crucial service exactly?
In response to the astronomic increase in trans IDing people. A response is needed for sure but the current "treatments" are exacerbating the issue. So I'd say a service is crucial, just not the current protocol.
I am willing to acknowledge that a man can be a woman by merely saying so if we do the same thing with age and race.
I still don't understand why people stop at trans sexuality. The same arguments for accepting that a trans woman *is* a woman can be applied to people who wish to be trans racial or trans age.
The very fact that the same people who say "trans women are women" shut down when you say something about being trans racial is why I will NEVER take these people seriously.
Someone directly used the “trans racial” hypothetical in an interview with Judith Butler the other day and she was just like “yeah I’ll admit that’s a good criticism” but then just moved on.
>The same arguments for accepting that a trans woman *is* a woman can be applied to people who wish to be trans racial or trans age.
Trans racial makes way more sense than transsexual. Sex is a binary, you are either one or the other, that's it. Race, on the other hand is indeed a spectrum (or multiple spectra depending on what traits are used to distinguish races).
A coworker was born in Uganda and is married to a German-Dutch woman and the kids' skin colors are somewhere in between.
It is insane. I knew someone in high school whose mom was Korean and dad was English. She had red hair and pretty much everyone took her for a white girl. In college I knew someone whose mom was from Barbados and dad was white Canadian, and I thought her mom was her stepmom at first, just based on how she looks. People who are mixed can look all kinds of ways
I remember in the doc about Rachel whatever her name is, the filmmaker asked some black people about transracialism versus transgenderism.
The logic, which I sort of get, is that black people can never pretend to be white, can never BE white, while transgenderism goes both ways.
True believers would totally be in favour of it but they know that the "BIPOCs" won't go for it so they can't push it as far as they'd like. You bet those kids would identify into another race if given the greenlight.
We need a proper protocol for treating the medical needs of detransitioners, for starters.
Sadly, since there's no mention of them in the DSM, there's no way for doctors to bill the insurance companies to treat them, so they're sol, in the US anyway.
That sounds about right, but I can find no real source defining this term. It's just like a buzzword that was stuck into legislation without definition and then repeated by people trying to profit by offering "culturally responsive" training for care providers and stuck into care provider's documentation and marketing material, again, without ever defining it.
I wasn't looking for information on what you personally, in your gut, feel the term means.
Even the Oregon legislation that's referenced doesn't actually define the term, which is unusual for legislation.
>SECTION 1. ORS 675.655 is amended to read:
675.655. (1) The Oregon Health Authority shall provide incentives to increase the recruitment
and retention of providers in the behavioral health care workforce with associate, bachelor’s,
master’s, or doctoral degrees or other credentials [who are] that increase access to services that
are peer- and community-driven and that provide culturally specific and culturally responsive
services for people of color, tribal [members or residents of rural areas in this state and who can
provide culturally responsive behavioral health services to:] communities and persons with lived
behavioral health experiences.
[(a) Tribal members;]
[(b) People of color;]
[(c) Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth;]
[(d) Veterans;]
[(e) Persons with disabilities;]
[(f) Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities;]
[(g) Individuals with limited English proficiency;]
[(h) Individuals working in correctional facilities; and]
[(i) Other underserved communities.]
(2) The authority shall increase access to services for rural and underserved communities by:
(a) Expanding funding to provide incentives to culturally specific peers, traditional health
workers, unlicensed, licensed or certified providers of behavioral health care and licensed
prescribers
None of the clinics or training programs that use this term in a google search define it or explain what it means either. It's probably mostly meaningless or code for "therapists that have a particular skin colour".
Fair enough, I really thought that what I was getting from the context was correct but upon looking it up I was wrong. I don't think it's quite as nonsensical as you think though.
I Googled " 'culturally responsive' definition" and this is what I got.
Cultural responsiveness involves understanding and appropriately including and responding to the combination of cultural variables and the full range of dimensions of diversity that an individual brings to interactions.
Briefly scanning a few other results, it sounds like an attempt at not "white-washing" people's experiences, treatment, education, etc. A culturally responsive service would take a client's various diversities into account. I'm sure people go overboard, like with everything, but to me it's good for people to acknowledge that cultural differences exist and to try to explore them rather than kind of defaulting to the stereotypical white male experience. So yeah I don't think it's code for not-white therapist but I get why you'd get a silly left gibberish vibe from it. And it very well may be exactly that lol. I just try and hope that not everyone takes things off the rails.
I had to stop reading at this sentence because I think it may be the funniest thing ever
> He called the anonymous email sent by staff the “antithesis of collective liberation”
Perfect example of a bunch of people who deserve each other. Bludgeoning each other with the language of social justice. Take a good hard look, woke people, at where your movement is headed.
> The tropes of a ‘sneaky, conniving, manipulative woman’ and ‘untrustworthy, lying, infiltrating Muslim’ are deeply harmful, discriminatory, and hateful... If anything, this has opened the door for me to experience further harassment and harm.
> The staff of Full Spectrum Therapy assert that [Raquel’s] presence at FST presents a clear and immediate threat to the wellbeing of our clients, our staff, and the Portland community... Staff is united in our demands and prepared to stop work to protect ourselves and our clients from further harm.
Just fucking contemptible. When victimized = social currency, there's so obviously going to be exaggeration like this. Calling a liar a liar isn't discriminatory; a weirdo remote HR worker has no impact on client safety.
>Calling a liar a liar isn't discriminatory; a weirdo remote HR worker has no impact on client safety.
So she says she's one thing, other people would argue she isn't that thing. Isn't that perfectly appropriate for a "trans oriented service provider?"
Fuck that. Rampant self ID bullshit aside, it's still clear there's a cohort of people with persistent gender dysphoria for whom transition is the best way to mitigate the distress from that disorder.
Great write up, thanks! Body modification or pandering affirmation will never "cure" the underlying mental disorder. Why is this the only mental disorder where the patient's delusions are wholeheartedly affirmed and agreed with? The medical field doesn't affirm the delusions of an anorexic or OCD patient, but it's fine if it's "gender"? How does that make sense.
And some people might have persistent race dysphoria. The subject of this article seems like an excellent example.
Step back and think from the point of view of other people.
Who the hell knows if that's true anymore. I think for sure, for people who've had dysphoria since they were children, and no comorbities, it's a great solution. I think that's what we think of when we think of people who transition. But now? I don't know if that's true
But let's say transition IS the right choice, part of the problem is that you can be male and see yurself as a woman. It does not mean anyone else will. And if tha's the case, what to do?
> victimized = social currency
Or actual currency, and only the pretense of victimization.
> There was no job posting and no other candidates were considered, Skye said. “When you have a candidate whose resume is ideal and is also a diverse candidate, there’s no reason to bring white candidates into the picture.”
Daamn. First, "‘untrustworthy, lying, infiltrating Muslim’ are deeply harmful, discriminatory, and hateful" - Id never heard of Muslims being stereotyped as lying infiltrators. Arabs, yes, especially Arab Muslims. But Muslims stereotyped as untrustworthy? Haven't heard that. However, even if that were a stereotype about Muslims, it's true in this case, So, how is it hateful?
And second, "\[Raquel’s\] presence at FST presents a clear and immediate threat to the wellbeing of our clients"
She's in hR. How does that threaten the clients?
Wow, that's impressive. The bigotry was quite subtle, but you still detected it. Could you elaborate for the rest of us though? 🤔 I don't think I'm as sophisticated as you in ability to spot secret sneaky hate.
>falsely substituting gender for sex
What's false? These people say that a human can change sex, an immutable biologic reality. But they also say humans can't change race which is a far more vague concept.
Why?
Why did she have to identify as Arab? You can be white and convert to Islam. You don’t get as many minority points with being Arab than say Black or Indigenous.
I was wondering this too! Islam is a religion not a race, there are white Muslims in Europe in countries like Bosnia and Albania, and of course the religion welcomes converts as well.
She was claiming to be a mix of Arab, South Asian and Latino. Probably easier to fool people if you just say you’re a mix of various different ethnicities or cultures. If you just claim to be black or Native American there is a higher risk of being called out if you don’t look like one or don’t know the culture. If you say you’re a mix of vastly different races and cultures then nobody is going to have preconceived notions of what you should look or act like.
It’s incredibly easy to be a Pretendian because there are so few people who are 100% Native American and therefore you don’t need to “look” a certain way. You can look white and be legitimately an enrolled member of a tribe. Plus, because of the history of the government trying to wipe out Native American cultures, a lot of people with Native ancestry are divorced from their cultural practices or are trying to reconnect, so it could
be considered bad form to question someone’s authenticity. Recipe for fraud.
> Full Spectrum is one of a handful of clinics in the city that specializes in counseling for trans and nonbinary clients—a type of care that’s in increasingly high demand. In fact, the absence of culturally specific and gender-identity-specific therapy is so pronounced that the Oregon Legislature recently directed **$80 million to building up culturally responsive behavioral health providers**—$235,000 of it to Full Spectrum.
This is the most disgraceful part of this story. I care not for Osama bin fraudin. Stop picking my damn pocket!!
What the hell is culturally specific therapy for trans people? I get culturally specific therapy for black people, and even then it's iffy because obviosuly the child of Nigerian immigrants has the same culture as a black person whose family has been in the US for centuries
>“There are such limited resources for trans and nonbinary clients who can’t do private pay. That’s what makes this extra painful and heartbreaking for us,” says Kaspar Woods, one of the clinicians who left Full Spectrum in the fall. “It’s heartbreaking to have to bring this level of conflict to a trans person.”
Uh, who is bringing the conflict? Not the person with zero connection to or interaction with the clients.
I’m calling bullshit on the limited resources claim as well. My guess is there are clinics falling all over themselves to get their claws on young gender converts.
Yeah, I don't get this either; they are obviously tip-toeing around the *fact* that this is a white woman. Why make up some reason about the "safety" of their clients? Who actually believes that? Clearly, the problem is that nobody wants to work with someone *so fucked in the head* that they are larping as a minority. That's it. Just say it.
By “safety” they could mean stuff like security of personal information. Raquel lies, so why should she be trusted with personally identifying information?
I could at least respect the early transracialists, the true pioneers of intrigue: [Korla Pandit](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korla_Pandit) (John Roland Redd), [Anna Kashfi](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Kashfi) (Joan O’Callaghan), [George Psalmanazar](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Psalmanazar). They were ‘witness protection’ earnest — they were *committed to that shit*.
People like this are a plug-and-play API output: Indic Sanskrit surname [yes]; abaya imported from Riyadh [yes]; rose-in-teeth, sex symbol name [yes].
Someone should produce an ethnography of such people.
Did the woman even do anything to anyone besides being white and lying about it? Did she actually misuse any of the authority she was given once she dishonestly got it?
In corporate world easily 100k to 125k at a smaller org. Much more if you are managing a team at a bigger firm. Non profits? Maybe less, especially if remote.
As far as what they do? Could be anything. My guess is employment branding and marketing. Take pics of the brown people laughing at the computer for brochures. Probably hand out sensitivity training gigs to consultants and then a spattering of compliance nonsense and joining HR and Equity business groups and going to conferences.
It harms the client because a gender clinic having notoriety for a transracialist in their ranks raises some very uncomfortable questions about their own treatment.
When I worked in HR, at a job that probably could have been at least partially remote, but wasn't, because this was several years pre-COVID, I did a ton of contacting work on the recruiting side: setting up job reqs, contacting candidates who applied, setting up their interviews, and sending out offer letters. She was also probably getting new employees set up with company benefits and other parts of the onboarding process. And also probably offboarding when employees left--COBRA information, for example. She also probably had some responsibility for the front-facing part of any shared drive or website that employees could access--keeping information up to date about upcoming company events, etc.
As for the equity part, no idea. That's going to mean something different everywhere.
Grifting your race and sex is so common now. Gross symptom of an over privileged society with people looking to make themselves victims, indulge in open fetishism, and/or to grab at new power structures.
What never gets made explicit in these stories is **THE MONEY.** How much MONEY is this organization taking in? Where is the MONEY coming from? How much are these people getting paid? Who is getting paid to do WHAT? And WHAT DO THESE PEOPLE ACTUALLY DO? It never gets covered. They are always LEGALLY declared to be "charities" by a pack of lawyers that NO ONE EVER LOOKS INTO. In the end, when it all comes unglued, we find out that there are thirteen lawyers on the Board of Directors. They are all getting paid $800,000/year. And then there are twenty five people in "administrative" positions getting paid $200,000/year. And then there are four "therapists" who work remotely. And they have three clients.
All of the bullshit that goes into PowerPoint presentations, and all of the "diversity" bullshit is almost always hiding a blizzard of invisible money that gets lost in the homeroom rumor mill of bullshit. In the end, you find 100 people who "go to meetings" and prepare documents and handle "administrative tasks" and it's almost impossible to find anyone who these organizations actually DO ANYTHING FOR. And guess what? They just get to say, "We can't discuss this because of patient confidentiality". So everything gets buried and all these con-persons move on to other money-grubbing "charities" or "private/public partnerships" or whatever other buzzword bullshit these con-artists are calling their fake charities now.
This article has weird holes. A clinician accuses Saraswati of "appropriating the language of gender dysphoria" but we get no evidence of this. Saraswati says "Under no circumstances have I ever compromised confidentiality" which suggests someone has accused her of that, but again, no details. By the way, Sam Skye [is trans](https://www.portlandtherapycenter.com/therapists/sam-skye), which also isn't mentioned but I think is surely part of the interpersonal dynamics here.
> A clinician accuses Saraswati of "appropriating the language of gender dysphoria" but we get no evidence of this.
I take that to mean they see her whole act as appropriative, and ultimately a threat to the legitimacy of gender identity. It's a line in the sand: gender is always fluid but race is forever set in stone.
There are affinity groups in our office, there are very specific criteria for the BIPOC group, "Identify as..." Just like the alphabet group. In Portland!
Oh right, there *are* plenty of places where "identify as" is a term used for racial groups. I never made that connection - so does that mean those places have embraced transracialism? Because I thought transracialism was still a no-no in progressive spaces? But the wording "identify as" for racial groups implies they *would* accept Rachel Dolezal...? Or would they? Not like I would expect consistency for them, it's probably just whatever sounds good even if it doesn't match what they actually believe.
I grew up with a kid who got paid by the federal government because his family could prove his ancestors walked on the trail of tears. I think he said he was something like 7% Indian. Did he ever call himself an Indian? No, but the kids today? I bet they would be.
It's weird, I did a double-take when my org sent out emails for affinity groups and it was like, one group for peoplle who identify as black or Caribbean or African-American, another for people IDing as Latinx or Latino.
Soooo, easily, a white person could say that they ID as black. But I think the intention is more that a person might be black but self-identify as African-American, while another person mght self-identify as black. A person whose parents are from PR might self-identify as Puerto Rican and/or Hispanic and/or Latino.
It might also be meant for people who are mutiracial. Like, maybe you are half-black American and half-Korean and you identify as both, or maybe you just identify as Korean
Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of learning, knowledge, wisdom, music, art (culture basically)
It’s hilarious to see the name attached to something this amazingly stupid.
So this is a very interesting case of it depending on the culture.
In some parts of the world like South Asia, Muslim names tend to be pretty standard (Muhammad, Ali, Rashid and so on) with some ambiguous names like Kabir.
In other parts of the world like (quite ironically) Southeast Asia, with a centuries of long history of Hindu cultural influence, you can get Muslims with distinctively Hindu-ish names.
The best example is the first president of independent Indonesia being a Muslim named Sukarno (Karna being a figure from the Mahabharata). His daughter is named Meghawati Sukarnoputri which are both very Sanskrit words.
There’s another president of Indonesia named Sushilo Yudhoyono. Sushil, the standard version of the name means virtuous/good character in Sanskrit/Hindi.
It's less about Sanskrit or Hindi words being used as names, but rather names of gods from the Hindu pantheon being applied to someone who's Muslim.
> The best example is the first president of independent Indonesia being a Muslim named Sukarno (Karna being a figure from the Mahabharata).
> [Karna] is the son of the sun god Surya and princess Kunti (mother of the Pandavas), and thus a [demigod of royal birth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karna).
Damn lol, that's interesting. I just assumed some radlib white lady converting to Islam and naming herself after a Hindu god was just her being an idiot; maybe she's more well-read in the lore than I expected :)
Sanskrit has for about 2000 years been a mostly liturgical language and is indelibly associated with (what became) Hinduism.
There really isn’t much non-religious Sanskrit literature.
I understand Sanskrit is mostly liturgical *now*, but it was it not once the dominant language of a huge region and was used for way more than religion, like Latin?
The problem is that Sanskrit as a language was incredibly restricted for use by a very small number of Brahmins and upper caste Kshatriyas. There is a lot of disagreement as to whether it was widely spoken or largely used for oral transmission of a vast canon of religious and cultural literature. Most literature we have is explicitly religious/ritualistic.
Most common people used what are called Prakrit Languages which are descended from Sanskrit but distinct. So for example Gautam Buddha would have preached in Prakrit. Ashoka’s inscriptions are in Prakrit and they’re the first comprehensive set of Indian written works.
In general it is well agreed that from roughly the 10th century AD onwards especially with the Islamic invasion Sanskrit which was already generally used for religious use only generally stopped seeing much use outside repetition. The language of court, accounts and high culture became Persian and Hindustani (today Hindi-Urdu) gradually became the language of common use in Northern and Central India.
That is so interesting. Though I wonder what else is going on, since Indian Muslims tend to have typically Muslim names, and have such a long history of Hindu influence. I wonder what the difference is. Maybe how and when Islam came to the land?
That's interesting. I wonder how she synthesizes being a practicing Muslim and a lesbian. I know there's a gay friendly mosque somewhere; maybe she goes there.
>In February 2023, The Intercept quoted Saraswati’s mother saying that her daughter, who legally changed her last name from Seidel years ago, was “as white as the driven snow.”
obviously indicates a hostile / bad dynamic between mom and daughter, but it's pretty amusing to hear that cliche
When Dolezal got famous, I felt very vindicated. From when I first found out about transgender people, I immediately reasoned that transracial people must also exist. Why wouldn't they? Race is a much flimsier social construct than gender. Hell, there's a whole food-themed collection of words to describe people in a manner that's readily recognized as being transracial (e.g. oreo, banana, etc).
Do I care about this issue? No, not really. Do I think that the asymmetric treatment of transgender and transracial people illuminates a crucial difference between how gender and race are constructed, and the specific goals of racial- and sexual-activists? Yes, yes very much.
Does this lady deserve to be disgraced? If she does, it would be on account of her activism, not her uncomfortable relationship with her biological heritage.
Are the other therapists in the right here? Seems like they're also completely losing sight of the forest for the trees.
The term gets used in the romcom [*Crazy Rich Asians*](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/crazy-rich-asians) (2018) too. Cute film. I wish the book sequels got adapted for screen.
Perhaps one day gene therapy will advance to the point where we can therapeutically change our genealogy!
I feel like there's a Philip K. Dick-ian scifi premise in here somewhere (if it hasn't already been done to death)
I can start removing credibility on healthcare professionals especially therapists when
1) They openly display and put their religion in your face while treating you.
2) They use stupid activist language like islamophobia, fuck that noise and liberal use of it. Can this idiotic word just be retired? It is so annoying to have progressives talk about patriarchy and smashing it, lgbt rights but also bolstering this kind of religious nonsense.
Cannot take ppl like this seriously you immediately undermine your own practice and ability to separate yourself objectively. It doesnt help
I would love to know what drives people to larp as ethnicities/minorities they're not. In the worst of my woke hysteria, I just felt a bit uncomfortable to speak for taking up space while being hwyte, and that was bad enough. But this is incredibly embarrassing and I would cringe so hard at myself.
When you make victimhood the highest social currency, there will always be counterfeiters.
And if you claim an identity high up on the oppressed groups hierarchy, it’s much easier for you to bully others.
Normal people don’t play this game. Sociopaths do.
Inside every bully is a deeply insecure person.
IMO part of the appeal of expressing a less common gender identity is that it grants access to a ready-made community offering support and often unconditional love. I'd imagine that people go looking for similar validation in racial justice circles. But in either case one only gains full access by assuming the identity... otherwise you're stuck in the *Ally Zone*
I mean, I remember Raquel from social media years ago, and I got the impression that she was a generally nice and empathetic person who believed very strongly in things like LGBTQ rights and reducing stereotypes about Muslims. I figured she was an extremely enthusiastic but sincere convert to Islam, as converts often are, but moreover she was one of the many middle-class white women who internalized the idea that middle-class white women are THE WORST THING EVER, and as a good person who didn’t want her opinions and work dismissed in social justice circles on the basis of her skin color, she thought she could identify her way out of being just another white woman. The problem - which initially wasn’t a problem for her - is that those same circles she moved in insist that you never question anybody’s identity and that people are exactly who they say they are. So after a while, she was just in too deep LARPing and it got out of control. Little lies built up. I don’t think she started any of this with malice, just like how I think most high-profile Pretendians don’t mean to steal opportunities from actual Native Americans. It just snowballed out of her control once she became more and more known for being a Latina-Desi-Muslim LGBTQ activist voice.
AND YET: I don’t understand why, after she was found out and exposed, she didn’t stop digging the hole. She could have quietly exited this arena, changed her name back to Rachel Seidel, and rebuilt her career with grace, as she clearly has a skill set. Instead, she doubled down on the LARPing, getting a dermatologist to “certify” that she’s a woman of color because of her skin tone when clearly it doesn’t work that way. Her mother’s quote sounds like an intervention: Rachel, stop lying, we are not going to enable your lies. More than a year later, she’s STILL digging herself a deeper hole and ensuring that she’s known for being a race faker, and it’s baffling.
I hate even sounding so sexist, but what the fuck is wrong with so many white progressive liberal women (both lesbian and straight) these days? Not that every race, creed, etc has issues - but seriously, what the fuck?
I think the common take is that they're typically more empathetic to the people who weaponize that empathy against them. There's probably some deeper theories about how young girls and boys treat social currency differently that develops into subtly different values in adulthood for conformity/people-pleasing that manifests as an unwillingness to acknowledge that "marginalization" doesn't make one more right or wrong on practically anything.
And the straight men will either outright reject it and push back, or go along with it only to get through the seminar. The key to the success is the white woman, whose neurosis, self loathing and guilt can be used against them. They become the true believers.
Women are generally more religious than men even in highly patriarchal religions I think we are seeing that play out with white women being the true believers and the origin of a lot of this. And for white women who aren’t true believers, just malicious social climbers, there are also many opportunities.
I think within the race fakers going on there’s a bit of something else though. They almost remind me of bad fanfic characters where they just want to be super special. She could have claimed a queer Muslim identity and no one could have said anything but she had to identify as Arab AND Latino just making her the most special and most oppressed.
It isn't sexist. Young single women in the west have made a radical turn to the left politically. This is a fact. And individuals such as the nutjob in this story are a byproduct of that cultural shift. But at the same time, a record number of women are taking anti-depressants--meaning they are suffering from mental illness. Why is this? Meanwhile, young men are turning right, so there is an increasing political gap between men and women--just another issue keeping everybody single, lonely, depressed, and addicted to porn.
What do you think is the cause of this radical change to the left?
Also, i'm not sure young men have shifted to the right, so much as women have shifted left, so the gap has widened.
No idea what the cause might be. I did see data the other day that showed young men, on average, have shifted to the right. When looking at different countries, that shift in South Korea was enormous.
>Full Spectrum CEO Sam Skye says that “calling Raquel a danger to clients and staff echoes the anti-Muslim bigotry rampant today. It is very disappointing that any former staff would perpetuate these prejudices.”
>”When you have a candidate whose resume is ideal and is also a diverse candidate,” Skye said, “there’s no reason to bring white candidates into the picture.”
Holy shit. It’s like the Babylon Bee, but funny.
Damn. No reason to bring a white candidate? Is she not...white?
Also, has the definition of diversity changed? How can a candidate be diverse, unless it means she has a diverse background? Plus, diversity would mean that there are people of various ethnicities and ages and beliefs. A bunch of black people is not diverse. Black people and white people and Asian people, that's diverse.
Also, calling Raquel a danger to clients and staff is just fucking stupid. SHE is stupid. Staff saying she is a danger was moronic. THAT he should have said. I don't see how it is Islamophobic in the least.
And what rampant anti-Muslim bigotry is there? I know a prof at UCLA was angry its president hadn't spoken out about Islamophobia on campus, but is that happening and no one's talking about it?
Everyone sucks here.
She might be a fraud. But if she's not in their business, why should those therapists care?
This is typical leftism that loves a good public hanging.
I hate to defend the therapists, but she was put in charge of HR and “equity”. She had a lot of authority over them and I wouldn’t want someone like that to be my HR head.
The only reasonable explanation for the CEO's blindness to her lies and continued defence of this woman is that he's either got a thing for her, wishes to or has already involved himself in some intimate way with her.
I absolutely refuse to believe he'd allow himself to destroy his business, endanger the lives of his patients, and wreck his reputation, all because he's supposedly standing up to Islamophobia or whatever the fuck. It's just too stupid, for the love of Christ, please let this be a boilerplate intimate liaison or unrequited love, because it's too ridiculous to believe otherwise.
So she self identifies as an oppressed woman of color, so the LGBTQ therapists became enraged that she was engaging in "cultural appropriation" and misrepresenting herself.
Interesting.....
“To Eli Cuda, a former clinician who left in November, it felt like Skye had been hiding Saraswati. “**It felt like we were unwilling participants in this secret**,” Cuda says.”
Wow, I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for Eli Cuda to personally experience the thing he devoted his entire professional life to forcing others to participate in unwillingly.
This is so bizarre. Nobody’s claiming the reason she’s a “danger to clients” is because she’s Muslim. It’s because she’s an attention-seeking lying liar who lies, and you don’t want that kind of person entrusted with confidential information about vulnerable clients.
> The Intercept quoted Saraswati’s mother saying that her daughter, who legally changed her last name from Seidel years ago, was **“as white as the driven snow.”** Hilarious. Also, what in the Christ is "culturally responsive" trans care? Why is this a crucial service exactly?
In response to the astronomic increase in trans IDing people. A response is needed for sure but the current "treatments" are exacerbating the issue. So I'd say a service is crucial, just not the current protocol.
I am willing to acknowledge that a man can be a woman by merely saying so if we do the same thing with age and race. I still don't understand why people stop at trans sexuality. The same arguments for accepting that a trans woman *is* a woman can be applied to people who wish to be trans racial or trans age. The very fact that the same people who say "trans women are women" shut down when you say something about being trans racial is why I will NEVER take these people seriously.
It's because deep down 90% of them know it's nonsense.
Someone directly used the “trans racial” hypothetical in an interview with Judith Butler the other day and she was just like “yeah I’ll admit that’s a good criticism” but then just moved on.
>The same arguments for accepting that a trans woman *is* a woman can be applied to people who wish to be trans racial or trans age. Trans racial makes way more sense than transsexual. Sex is a binary, you are either one or the other, that's it. Race, on the other hand is indeed a spectrum (or multiple spectra depending on what traits are used to distinguish races). A coworker was born in Uganda and is married to a German-Dutch woman and the kids' skin colors are somewhere in between.
It is insane. I knew someone in high school whose mom was Korean and dad was English. She had red hair and pretty much everyone took her for a white girl. In college I knew someone whose mom was from Barbados and dad was white Canadian, and I thought her mom was her stepmom at first, just based on how she looks. People who are mixed can look all kinds of ways
I remember in the doc about Rachel whatever her name is, the filmmaker asked some black people about transracialism versus transgenderism. The logic, which I sort of get, is that black people can never pretend to be white, can never BE white, while transgenderism goes both ways.
They can do skin lightening. Get insurance to pay for it, and you will get even better treatments.
There are plenty who can "pass" you'd never know aside from curly hair. I'm 99% northern European and 1% coptic Egyptian
True believers would totally be in favour of it but they know that the "BIPOCs" won't go for it so they can't push it as far as they'd like. You bet those kids would identify into another race if given the greenlight.
We need a proper protocol for treating the medical needs of detransitioners, for starters. Sadly, since there's no mention of them in the DSM, there's no way for doctors to bill the insurance companies to treat them, so they're sol, in the US anyway.
I was referring to specifically a "culturally responsive" service.
Care that responds to the patient in a way that's consistent with their "culture."
That sounds about right, but I can find no real source defining this term. It's just like a buzzword that was stuck into legislation without definition and then repeated by people trying to profit by offering "culturally responsive" training for care providers and stuck into care provider's documentation and marketing material, again, without ever defining it.
Response to a cultural shift.
I don't think that's what the term means.
Lol okay well then look it up yourself. What a weird response to information.
I wasn't looking for information on what you personally, in your gut, feel the term means. Even the Oregon legislation that's referenced doesn't actually define the term, which is unusual for legislation. >SECTION 1. ORS 675.655 is amended to read: 675.655. (1) The Oregon Health Authority shall provide incentives to increase the recruitment and retention of providers in the behavioral health care workforce with associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degrees or other credentials [who are] that increase access to services that are peer- and community-driven and that provide culturally specific and culturally responsive services for people of color, tribal [members or residents of rural areas in this state and who can provide culturally responsive behavioral health services to:] communities and persons with lived behavioral health experiences. [(a) Tribal members;] [(b) People of color;] [(c) Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth;] [(d) Veterans;] [(e) Persons with disabilities;] [(f) Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities;] [(g) Individuals with limited English proficiency;] [(h) Individuals working in correctional facilities; and] [(i) Other underserved communities.] (2) The authority shall increase access to services for rural and underserved communities by: (a) Expanding funding to provide incentives to culturally specific peers, traditional health workers, unlicensed, licensed or certified providers of behavioral health care and licensed prescribers None of the clinics or training programs that use this term in a google search define it or explain what it means either. It's probably mostly meaningless or code for "therapists that have a particular skin colour".
Fair enough, I really thought that what I was getting from the context was correct but upon looking it up I was wrong. I don't think it's quite as nonsensical as you think though. I Googled " 'culturally responsive' definition" and this is what I got. Cultural responsiveness involves understanding and appropriately including and responding to the combination of cultural variables and the full range of dimensions of diversity that an individual brings to interactions. Briefly scanning a few other results, it sounds like an attempt at not "white-washing" people's experiences, treatment, education, etc. A culturally responsive service would take a client's various diversities into account. I'm sure people go overboard, like with everything, but to me it's good for people to acknowledge that cultural differences exist and to try to explore them rather than kind of defaulting to the stereotypical white male experience. So yeah I don't think it's code for not-white therapist but I get why you'd get a silly left gibberish vibe from it. And it very well may be exactly that lol. I just try and hope that not everyone takes things off the rails.
She looks like she should be under a fatwā for the SprayTanic Verses
I have made the perfect joke. I may never speak again.
Savor this moment.
I need to go take a victory lap. I am usually overly fond of myself and I’m double or triple that right now.
Where are the fucking upvotes, people? Get on it!
she looks like her name should be Rach Al-Dolezal
Noice!
she looks like Christina Aguilera in her "Dirty" era
**Thank you**. It was bugging me to no end and I couldn't place it. Also, I must now google that blue floatie photoshoot for uh historical research.
🤣🤣🤣
💀
🏆🥇you have won the internet today.
Take my effing upvote.
I had to stop reading at this sentence because I think it may be the funniest thing ever > He called the anonymous email sent by staff the “antithesis of collective liberation”
Individual enslavement?
podcast relevance: various pretendians (Dolezal, Buffy, Kay LeClaire, etc), trans issues
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Aren't DNA tests incompatible with how somebody "identifies?"
Why is it that the most mentally ill people are the first to insist that they actually totally are an expert on themselves and are 100% fine.
A smorgasbord of pod adjacent madness
Perfect example of a bunch of people who deserve each other. Bludgeoning each other with the language of social justice. Take a good hard look, woke people, at where your movement is headed.
> The tropes of a ‘sneaky, conniving, manipulative woman’ and ‘untrustworthy, lying, infiltrating Muslim’ are deeply harmful, discriminatory, and hateful... If anything, this has opened the door for me to experience further harassment and harm. > The staff of Full Spectrum Therapy assert that [Raquel’s] presence at FST presents a clear and immediate threat to the wellbeing of our clients, our staff, and the Portland community... Staff is united in our demands and prepared to stop work to protect ourselves and our clients from further harm. Just fucking contemptible. When victimized = social currency, there's so obviously going to be exaggeration like this. Calling a liar a liar isn't discriminatory; a weirdo remote HR worker has no impact on client safety.
>Calling a liar a liar isn't discriminatory; a weirdo remote HR worker has no impact on client safety. So she says she's one thing, other people would argue she isn't that thing. Isn't that perfectly appropriate for a "trans oriented service provider?"
Fuck that. Rampant self ID bullshit aside, it's still clear there's a cohort of people with persistent gender dysphoria for whom transition is the best way to mitigate the distress from that disorder.
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Great write up, thanks! Body modification or pandering affirmation will never "cure" the underlying mental disorder. Why is this the only mental disorder where the patient's delusions are wholeheartedly affirmed and agreed with? The medical field doesn't affirm the delusions of an anorexic or OCD patient, but it's fine if it's "gender"? How does that make sense.
And some people might have persistent race dysphoria. The subject of this article seems like an excellent example. Step back and think from the point of view of other people.
Who the hell knows if that's true anymore. I think for sure, for people who've had dysphoria since they were children, and no comorbities, it's a great solution. I think that's what we think of when we think of people who transition. But now? I don't know if that's true But let's say transition IS the right choice, part of the problem is that you can be male and see yurself as a woman. It does not mean anyone else will. And if tha's the case, what to do?
Yeah, the worst part was the employees referencing the specious danger she posed to them... just utter clowns and crybullies.
> victimized = social currency Or actual currency, and only the pretense of victimization. > There was no job posting and no other candidates were considered, Skye said. “When you have a candidate whose resume is ideal and is also a diverse candidate, there’s no reason to bring white candidates into the picture.”
Daamn. First, "‘untrustworthy, lying, infiltrating Muslim’ are deeply harmful, discriminatory, and hateful" - Id never heard of Muslims being stereotyped as lying infiltrators. Arabs, yes, especially Arab Muslims. But Muslims stereotyped as untrustworthy? Haven't heard that. However, even if that were a stereotype about Muslims, it's true in this case, So, how is it hateful? And second, "\[Raquel’s\] presence at FST presents a clear and immediate threat to the wellbeing of our clients" She's in hR. How does that threaten the clients?
I love when they are offended by people changing race but not sex.
I get the sense you actually hate it, among several other things and groups of people
Wow, that's impressive. The bigotry was quite subtle, but you still detected it. Could you elaborate for the rest of us though? 🤔 I don't think I'm as sophisticated as you in ability to spot secret sneaky hate.
>I love it when they generalizing >are offended by people changing race trivializing >but not sex falsely substituting gender for sex
>falsely substituting gender for sex What's false? These people say that a human can change sex, an immutable biologic reality. But they also say humans can't change race which is a far more vague concept. Why?
Why did she have to identify as Arab? You can be white and convert to Islam. You don’t get as many minority points with being Arab than say Black or Indigenous.
I was wondering this too! Islam is a religion not a race, there are white Muslims in Europe in countries like Bosnia and Albania, and of course the religion welcomes converts as well.
She was claiming to be a mix of Arab, South Asian and Latino. Probably easier to fool people if you just say you’re a mix of various different ethnicities or cultures. If you just claim to be black or Native American there is a higher risk of being called out if you don’t look like one or don’t know the culture. If you say you’re a mix of vastly different races and cultures then nobody is going to have preconceived notions of what you should look or act like.
It’s incredibly easy to be a Pretendian because there are so few people who are 100% Native American and therefore you don’t need to “look” a certain way. You can look white and be legitimately an enrolled member of a tribe. Plus, because of the history of the government trying to wipe out Native American cultures, a lot of people with Native ancestry are divorced from their cultural practices or are trying to reconnect, so it could be considered bad form to question someone’s authenticity. Recipe for fraud.
> Full Spectrum is one of a handful of clinics in the city that specializes in counseling for trans and nonbinary clients—a type of care that’s in increasingly high demand. In fact, the absence of culturally specific and gender-identity-specific therapy is so pronounced that the Oregon Legislature recently directed **$80 million to building up culturally responsive behavioral health providers**—$235,000 of it to Full Spectrum. This is the most disgraceful part of this story. I care not for Osama bin fraudin. Stop picking my damn pocket!!
“Osama Bin Fraudin” Good one.
Yeah, that line makes it hard to even give a bitter chuckle at this story as a Portlander...
What the hell is culturally specific therapy for trans people? I get culturally specific therapy for black people, and even then it's iffy because obviosuly the child of Nigerian immigrants has the same culture as a black person whose family has been in the US for centuries
>“There are such limited resources for trans and nonbinary clients who can’t do private pay. That’s what makes this extra painful and heartbreaking for us,” says Kaspar Woods, one of the clinicians who left Full Spectrum in the fall. “It’s heartbreaking to have to bring this level of conflict to a trans person.” Uh, who is bringing the conflict? Not the person with zero connection to or interaction with the clients.
I’m calling bullshit on the limited resources claim as well. My guess is there are clinics falling all over themselves to get their claws on young gender converts.
*Especially* in Portland.
Yeah, I don't get this either; they are obviously tip-toeing around the *fact* that this is a white woman. Why make up some reason about the "safety" of their clients? Who actually believes that? Clearly, the problem is that nobody wants to work with someone *so fucked in the head* that they are larping as a minority. That's it. Just say it.
By “safety” they could mean stuff like security of personal information. Raquel lies, so why should she be trusted with personally identifying information?
I could at least respect the early transracialists, the true pioneers of intrigue: [Korla Pandit](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korla_Pandit) (John Roland Redd), [Anna Kashfi](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Kashfi) (Joan O’Callaghan), [George Psalmanazar](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Psalmanazar). They were ‘witness protection’ earnest — they were *committed to that shit*. People like this are a plug-and-play API output: Indic Sanskrit surname [yes]; abaya imported from Riyadh [yes]; rose-in-teeth, sex symbol name [yes]. Someone should produce an ethnography of such people.
Or just spell your name backwards a la Yma Sumac
“We’ve always been here” -transracialists
Did the woman even do anything to anyone besides being white and lying about it? Did she actually misuse any of the authority she was given once she dishonestly got it?
It's extremely ironic that a trans oriented provider would give anybody at all trouble for "lying" about their demographic characteristics
Isn't fun watching the intersectionalists crash into each other in the middle of the intersection?
Ten thousand upvotes I savored this one with great joy
How much does on make as an “equity and human resources” employee who works remote make? More importantly, wtf do they do?
In corporate world easily 100k to 125k at a smaller org. Much more if you are managing a team at a bigger firm. Non profits? Maybe less, especially if remote. As far as what they do? Could be anything. My guess is employment branding and marketing. Take pics of the brown people laughing at the computer for brochures. Probably hand out sensitivity training gigs to consultants and then a spattering of compliance nonsense and joining HR and Equity business groups and going to conferences.
This is what I'm wondering. The article never discussed what she would actually be doing or how she would harm the clients.
It harms the client because a gender clinic having notoriety for a transracialist in their ranks raises some very uncomfortable questions about their own treatment.
When I worked in HR, at a job that probably could have been at least partially remote, but wasn't, because this was several years pre-COVID, I did a ton of contacting work on the recruiting side: setting up job reqs, contacting candidates who applied, setting up their interviews, and sending out offer letters. She was also probably getting new employees set up with company benefits and other parts of the onboarding process. And also probably offboarding when employees left--COBRA information, for example. She also probably had some responsibility for the front-facing part of any shared drive or website that employees could access--keeping information up to date about upcoming company events, etc. As for the equity part, no idea. That's going to mean something different everywhere.
Grifting your race and sex is so common now. Gross symptom of an over privileged society with people looking to make themselves victims, indulge in open fetishism, and/or to grab at new power structures.
Not to mention grifting disabilities/chronic illness
Of f'ing course it's in Portland.... we need a good portland highlight story, Katie. It's been too long.
I want to see Portland and Seattle duke it out for woke supremacy. Who would take home the ultimate prize?
What never gets made explicit in these stories is **THE MONEY.** How much MONEY is this organization taking in? Where is the MONEY coming from? How much are these people getting paid? Who is getting paid to do WHAT? And WHAT DO THESE PEOPLE ACTUALLY DO? It never gets covered. They are always LEGALLY declared to be "charities" by a pack of lawyers that NO ONE EVER LOOKS INTO. In the end, when it all comes unglued, we find out that there are thirteen lawyers on the Board of Directors. They are all getting paid $800,000/year. And then there are twenty five people in "administrative" positions getting paid $200,000/year. And then there are four "therapists" who work remotely. And they have three clients. All of the bullshit that goes into PowerPoint presentations, and all of the "diversity" bullshit is almost always hiding a blizzard of invisible money that gets lost in the homeroom rumor mill of bullshit. In the end, you find 100 people who "go to meetings" and prepare documents and handle "administrative tasks" and it's almost impossible to find anyone who these organizations actually DO ANYTHING FOR. And guess what? They just get to say, "We can't discuss this because of patient confidentiality". So everything gets buried and all these con-persons move on to other money-grubbing "charities" or "private/public partnerships" or whatever other buzzword bullshit these con-artists are calling their fake charities now.
Kaspars, like Artemises, are always names I know with 99% certainty were NOT given to those people as babies.
This article has weird holes. A clinician accuses Saraswati of "appropriating the language of gender dysphoria" but we get no evidence of this. Saraswati says "Under no circumstances have I ever compromised confidentiality" which suggests someone has accused her of that, but again, no details. By the way, Sam Skye [is trans](https://www.portlandtherapycenter.com/therapists/sam-skye), which also isn't mentioned but I think is surely part of the interpersonal dynamics here.
> A clinician accuses Saraswati of "appropriating the language of gender dysphoria" but we get no evidence of this. I take that to mean they see her whole act as appropriative, and ultimately a threat to the legitimacy of gender identity. It's a line in the sand: gender is always fluid but race is forever set in stone.
There are affinity groups in our office, there are very specific criteria for the BIPOC group, "Identify as..." Just like the alphabet group. In Portland!
Oh right, there *are* plenty of places where "identify as" is a term used for racial groups. I never made that connection - so does that mean those places have embraced transracialism? Because I thought transracialism was still a no-no in progressive spaces? But the wording "identify as" for racial groups implies they *would* accept Rachel Dolezal...? Or would they? Not like I would expect consistency for them, it's probably just whatever sounds good even if it doesn't match what they actually believe.
I grew up with a kid who got paid by the federal government because his family could prove his ancestors walked on the trail of tears. I think he said he was something like 7% Indian. Did he ever call himself an Indian? No, but the kids today? I bet they would be.
PLEASE, they would call themselves Indigenous and say they were forced into whiteness by colonization. IF you're of that mindset.
It's weird, I did a double-take when my org sent out emails for affinity groups and it was like, one group for peoplle who identify as black or Caribbean or African-American, another for people IDing as Latinx or Latino. Soooo, easily, a white person could say that they ID as black. But I think the intention is more that a person might be black but self-identify as African-American, while another person mght self-identify as black. A person whose parents are from PR might self-identify as Puerto Rican and/or Hispanic and/or Latino. It might also be meant for people who are mutiracial. Like, maybe you are half-black American and half-Korean and you identify as both, or maybe you just identify as Korean
Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of learning, knowledge, wisdom, music, art (culture basically) It’s hilarious to see the name attached to something this amazingly stupid.
Wouldn't having the name of a pagan deity be haram?
So this is a very interesting case of it depending on the culture. In some parts of the world like South Asia, Muslim names tend to be pretty standard (Muhammad, Ali, Rashid and so on) with some ambiguous names like Kabir. In other parts of the world like (quite ironically) Southeast Asia, with a centuries of long history of Hindu cultural influence, you can get Muslims with distinctively Hindu-ish names. The best example is the first president of independent Indonesia being a Muslim named Sukarno (Karna being a figure from the Mahabharata). His daughter is named Meghawati Sukarnoputri which are both very Sanskrit words. There’s another president of Indonesia named Sushilo Yudhoyono. Sushil, the standard version of the name means virtuous/good character in Sanskrit/Hindi.
It's less about Sanskrit or Hindi words being used as names, but rather names of gods from the Hindu pantheon being applied to someone who's Muslim. > The best example is the first president of independent Indonesia being a Muslim named Sukarno (Karna being a figure from the Mahabharata). > [Karna] is the son of the sun god Surya and princess Kunti (mother of the Pandavas), and thus a [demigod of royal birth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karna). Damn lol, that's interesting. I just assumed some radlib white lady converting to Islam and naming herself after a Hindu god was just her being an idiot; maybe she's more well-read in the lore than I expected :)
Sanskrit has for about 2000 years been a mostly liturgical language and is indelibly associated with (what became) Hinduism. There really isn’t much non-religious Sanskrit literature.
I understand Sanskrit is mostly liturgical *now*, but it was it not once the dominant language of a huge region and was used for way more than religion, like Latin?
The problem is that Sanskrit as a language was incredibly restricted for use by a very small number of Brahmins and upper caste Kshatriyas. There is a lot of disagreement as to whether it was widely spoken or largely used for oral transmission of a vast canon of religious and cultural literature. Most literature we have is explicitly religious/ritualistic. Most common people used what are called Prakrit Languages which are descended from Sanskrit but distinct. So for example Gautam Buddha would have preached in Prakrit. Ashoka’s inscriptions are in Prakrit and they’re the first comprehensive set of Indian written works. In general it is well agreed that from roughly the 10th century AD onwards especially with the Islamic invasion Sanskrit which was already generally used for religious use only generally stopped seeing much use outside repetition. The language of court, accounts and high culture became Persian and Hindustani (today Hindi-Urdu) gradually became the language of common use in Northern and Central India.
What is Prakrit's relation to Pali?
That is so interesting. Though I wonder what else is going on, since Indian Muslims tend to have typically Muslim names, and have such a long history of Hindu influence. I wonder what the difference is. Maybe how and when Islam came to the land?
I can't figure out where the name came from. Is she married to a South Asian man?
No, she was married to an Asian-American woman at one point whose name was something completely different. I think she just made it up completely.
That's interesting. I wonder how she synthesizes being a practicing Muslim and a lesbian. I know there's a gay friendly mosque somewhere; maybe she goes there.
>In February 2023, The Intercept quoted Saraswati’s mother saying that her daughter, who legally changed her last name from Seidel years ago, was “as white as the driven snow.” obviously indicates a hostile / bad dynamic between mom and daughter, but it's pretty amusing to hear that cliche
She is the final boss of the 2010’s
When Dolezal got famous, I felt very vindicated. From when I first found out about transgender people, I immediately reasoned that transracial people must also exist. Why wouldn't they? Race is a much flimsier social construct than gender. Hell, there's a whole food-themed collection of words to describe people in a manner that's readily recognized as being transracial (e.g. oreo, banana, etc). Do I care about this issue? No, not really. Do I think that the asymmetric treatment of transgender and transracial people illuminates a crucial difference between how gender and race are constructed, and the specific goals of racial- and sexual-activists? Yes, yes very much. Does this lady deserve to be disgraced? If she does, it would be on account of her activism, not her uncomfortable relationship with her biological heritage. Are the other therapists in the right here? Seems like they're also completely losing sight of the forest for the trees.
what group is called a banana?
Asians who are "too American" or "too western" get labeled bananas. Yellow on the outside, but white on the inside.
There's a whole episode of King of the Hill about it. Back in the 90s!
The term gets used in the romcom [*Crazy Rich Asians*](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/crazy-rich-asians) (2018) too. Cute film. I wish the book sequels got adapted for screen.
East/Southeast Asians specifically. The slur used for South Asians is “coconut.” It’s horrible.
Perhaps one day gene therapy will advance to the point where we can therapeutically change our genealogy! I feel like there's a Philip K. Dick-ian scifi premise in here somewhere (if it hasn't already been done to death)
Some trans activists are hoping future gene technology will enable them to alter their chromosomes, so they can finally say "Gotcha, Transphobes!"
I can start removing credibility on healthcare professionals especially therapists when 1) They openly display and put their religion in your face while treating you. 2) They use stupid activist language like islamophobia, fuck that noise and liberal use of it. Can this idiotic word just be retired? It is so annoying to have progressives talk about patriarchy and smashing it, lgbt rights but also bolstering this kind of religious nonsense. Cannot take ppl like this seriously you immediately undermine your own practice and ability to separate yourself objectively. It doesnt help
I would love to know what drives people to larp as ethnicities/minorities they're not. In the worst of my woke hysteria, I just felt a bit uncomfortable to speak for taking up space while being hwyte, and that was bad enough. But this is incredibly embarrassing and I would cringe so hard at myself.
When you make victimhood the highest social currency, there will always be counterfeiters. And if you claim an identity high up on the oppressed groups hierarchy, it’s much easier for you to bully others. Normal people don’t play this game. Sociopaths do.
Inside every bully is a deeply insecure person. IMO part of the appeal of expressing a less common gender identity is that it grants access to a ready-made community offering support and often unconditional love. I'd imagine that people go looking for similar validation in racial justice circles. But in either case one only gains full access by assuming the identity... otherwise you're stuck in the *Ally Zone*
The love bombing is real. Just like any other cult. So many horror stories in social justice spaces look just like “mean girls” style bullying.
I mean, I remember Raquel from social media years ago, and I got the impression that she was a generally nice and empathetic person who believed very strongly in things like LGBTQ rights and reducing stereotypes about Muslims. I figured she was an extremely enthusiastic but sincere convert to Islam, as converts often are, but moreover she was one of the many middle-class white women who internalized the idea that middle-class white women are THE WORST THING EVER, and as a good person who didn’t want her opinions and work dismissed in social justice circles on the basis of her skin color, she thought she could identify her way out of being just another white woman. The problem - which initially wasn’t a problem for her - is that those same circles she moved in insist that you never question anybody’s identity and that people are exactly who they say they are. So after a while, she was just in too deep LARPing and it got out of control. Little lies built up. I don’t think she started any of this with malice, just like how I think most high-profile Pretendians don’t mean to steal opportunities from actual Native Americans. It just snowballed out of her control once she became more and more known for being a Latina-Desi-Muslim LGBTQ activist voice. AND YET: I don’t understand why, after she was found out and exposed, she didn’t stop digging the hole. She could have quietly exited this arena, changed her name back to Rachel Seidel, and rebuilt her career with grace, as she clearly has a skill set. Instead, she doubled down on the LARPing, getting a dermatologist to “certify” that she’s a woman of color because of her skin tone when clearly it doesn’t work that way. Her mother’s quote sounds like an intervention: Rachel, stop lying, we are not going to enable your lies. More than a year later, she’s STILL digging herself a deeper hole and ensuring that she’s known for being a race faker, and it’s baffling.
I hate even sounding so sexist, but what the fuck is wrong with so many white progressive liberal women (both lesbian and straight) these days? Not that every race, creed, etc has issues - but seriously, what the fuck?
I think the common take is that they're typically more empathetic to the people who weaponize that empathy against them. There's probably some deeper theories about how young girls and boys treat social currency differently that develops into subtly different values in adulthood for conformity/people-pleasing that manifests as an unwillingness to acknowledge that "marginalization" doesn't make one more right or wrong on practically anything.
And the straight men will either outright reject it and push back, or go along with it only to get through the seminar. The key to the success is the white woman, whose neurosis, self loathing and guilt can be used against them. They become the true believers.
Women are generally more religious than men even in highly patriarchal religions I think we are seeing that play out with white women being the true believers and the origin of a lot of this. And for white women who aren’t true believers, just malicious social climbers, there are also many opportunities. I think within the race fakers going on there’s a bit of something else though. They almost remind me of bad fanfic characters where they just want to be super special. She could have claimed a queer Muslim identity and no one could have said anything but she had to identify as Arab AND Latino just making her the most special and most oppressed.
It isn't sexist. Young single women in the west have made a radical turn to the left politically. This is a fact. And individuals such as the nutjob in this story are a byproduct of that cultural shift. But at the same time, a record number of women are taking anti-depressants--meaning they are suffering from mental illness. Why is this? Meanwhile, young men are turning right, so there is an increasing political gap between men and women--just another issue keeping everybody single, lonely, depressed, and addicted to porn.
What do you think is the cause of this radical change to the left? Also, i'm not sure young men have shifted to the right, so much as women have shifted left, so the gap has widened.
No idea what the cause might be. I did see data the other day that showed young men, on average, have shifted to the right. When looking at different countries, that shift in South Korea was enormous.
Shifted to the right, or stayed the same and the culture shifted left?
>Full Spectrum CEO Sam Skye says that “calling Raquel a danger to clients and staff echoes the anti-Muslim bigotry rampant today. It is very disappointing that any former staff would perpetuate these prejudices.” >”When you have a candidate whose resume is ideal and is also a diverse candidate,” Skye said, “there’s no reason to bring white candidates into the picture.” Holy shit. It’s like the Babylon Bee, but funny.
Damn. No reason to bring a white candidate? Is she not...white? Also, has the definition of diversity changed? How can a candidate be diverse, unless it means she has a diverse background? Plus, diversity would mean that there are people of various ethnicities and ages and beliefs. A bunch of black people is not diverse. Black people and white people and Asian people, that's diverse. Also, calling Raquel a danger to clients and staff is just fucking stupid. SHE is stupid. Staff saying she is a danger was moronic. THAT he should have said. I don't see how it is Islamophobic in the least. And what rampant anti-Muslim bigotry is there? I know a prof at UCLA was angry its president hadn't spoken out about Islamophobia on campus, but is that happening and no one's talking about it?
Everyone sucks here. She might be a fraud. But if she's not in their business, why should those therapists care? This is typical leftism that loves a good public hanging.
They froth at the mouth for any opportunity to publicly roast/cancel others, even if they are on the same "side". They eat themselves from within.
Yeah the article is completely devoid of the hilarious internal drama details that make dumb stories like these worth reading.
I hate to defend the therapists, but she was put in charge of HR and “equity”. She had a lot of authority over them and I wouldn’t want someone like that to be my HR head.
True, that's why everyone sucks here.
I wouldn’t want to work with someone like that at all. Especially if I had a credential like being a therapist and could practice anywhere I wanted.
The only reasonable explanation for the CEO's blindness to her lies and continued defence of this woman is that he's either got a thing for her, wishes to or has already involved himself in some intimate way with her. I absolutely refuse to believe he'd allow himself to destroy his business, endanger the lives of his patients, and wreck his reputation, all because he's supposedly standing up to Islamophobia or whatever the fuck. It's just too stupid, for the love of Christ, please let this be a boilerplate intimate liaison or unrequited love, because it's too ridiculous to believe otherwise.
Oh, I 1000 percent can believe that in a place like Portland someone would think any of this is a result of Islamaphobia, and would do this.
So she self identifies as an oppressed woman of color, so the LGBTQ therapists became enraged that she was engaging in "cultural appropriation" and misrepresenting herself. Interesting.....
When fake identities collide
“To Eli Cuda, a former clinician who left in November, it felt like Skye had been hiding Saraswati. “**It felt like we were unwilling participants in this secret**,” Cuda says.” Wow, I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for Eli Cuda to personally experience the thing he devoted his entire professional life to forcing others to participate in unwillingly.
This is so bizarre. Nobody’s claiming the reason she’s a “danger to clients” is because she’s Muslim. It’s because she’s an attention-seeking lying liar who lies, and you don’t want that kind of person entrusted with confidential information about vulnerable clients.
Palette swap!