anyone watching The Rachel Divide?

[Tybee]

It is on Netflix, about Rachel Donazal (sp?). Absolutely fascinating and I realize how little I knew about her, and how much more complex this story is than I knew. It's only a couple of hours but I started it late and want to finish it today, and wondered what you all thought. I think it presents a lot of interesting issues about a lot of things, and I have found myself wondering some of the same things she wonders in the film, such as when she is supposed to select a race on her child's birth certificate.

[Ultralight]

She apparently changed her name (good, because it is impossible to pronounce and/or spell).

[JaneV2.0]

I read her book, and came away with it still not understanding why she felt it necessary to reinvent herself.

[Tybee]

I read her book, and came away with it still not understanding why she felt it necessary to reinvent herself.

Jane, from watching it, I get the feeling it had to do with abuse from her parents and older brother?

[JaneV2.0]

My guess was she was exaggerating the abuse--you never really know with memoirs what's true, and what's for effect. Even if it were true, why not just separate yourself from your family of origin?

I never read a coherent reason to claim a heritage she doesn't have and parlay it into jobs, speaking engagements, education and art opportunities...

[iris lilies]

She is idiotic.

[JaneV2.0]

She is idiotic.

Not to put too fine a point on it, eh?

[iris lilies]

Not to put too fine a point on it, eh?

Well it is funny that just yesterday I looked up on YouTube that video of the reporter who interviewed her standing out on the street, the interview that began the unraveling of her storybook life.He started out asking her about all of the racially charged threatening anonymous letters she had reported receiving, and after letting her jaw for a while, he zoomed in for the kill.

She is a very skilled liar.

[sweetana3]

The whole story reminds me of the Spanish woman who successfully faked being a World Trade Center survivor and fiance of a man who died in Tower 1. She became the head of the survivor's group before being found out by reporters doing research on all the survivors. She apparently did not make money from the scam but got attention which was what she wanted.

I have no problem with her being whatever she wants but when it involves lying to others to get into the group, it is not authentic.

[JaneV2.0]

Yeah--I can understand her identifying with a community to the extent that she immersed herself in it, but I can't understand--or excuse--the lying and exploitation part.