Rachel Dolezal
By Karl Muonio
We’ve become more accepting of transgender people. But why aren’t transracial people okay?
The media has been storming over Rachel Dolezal of late because she was born in a white body but she feels black.
In fact, she has adopted black children, she is a professor of African-American Studies, and until recently she was a branch president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Apparently, a black woman who feels trapped in a white body is a major problem that all of society must obsess over and condemn.
But I don’t see who is hurt by this.
In fact, her story could help relieve racial prejudice.
I mean, what’s not to love about her love of all things Black?
Miami Herald columnist, Leonard Pitts, Jr.
And, the real problem isn’t her delusions so much as ours, says syndicated columnist, Leonard Pitts, Jr.:
Meaning America’s founding myth, the one that tells us race is a fixed and objective fact.
In 2000, after mapping the genetic codes of five people — African-American, Caucasian, Asian and Hispanic — researchers announced they could find no difference among them. “The concept of race,” one of them said, “has no scientific basis.”
Allyson Hobbs, a Stanford history professor, tells New York Times readers that attempts to determine race can be messy. She points to an 1889 essay by Charles W. Chesnutt which,
poked fun at the laws that allowed a person to change his or her racial designation by walking across a state line.
If people understood that race isn’t what we think it is, could we prevent tragedies like the recent racially motivated massacre in Charleston, South Carolina?
Allyson Hobbs, Stanford History Professor
Dr. Hobbs wonders:
One can only imagine the impact (if) a significant number of white Americans chose to identify themselves as kindred of Eric Garner, Rekia Boyd, Tamir Rice, Tanisha Anderson, Freddie Gray, Kayla Moore, Oscar Grant, Shelly Frey and Michael Brown.
Race isn’t what we think it is. But it is very real in terms of how we are perceived and treated — because of what we think it is. Mr. Pitts continues,
What we call race is actually a set of cultural likenesses, shared experiences and implicit assumptions, i.e., that white men can’t jump and black ones can’t conjugate…
Rachel Dolezal, professor and activist
Race isn’t real. But it holds a multitude of notions as to what it means to be white, black, Asian, Latino.
The media surge is absurd, and not a news story. If Dr. Dolezal is in the news it should be for her accomplishments as a professor and an activist.
Ethnicity involves a feeling of belonging to a social group with a common cultural tradition.
Dr. Dolezal clearly feels most comfortable within African American culture, so she is ethnically black.
Transracial people do not deserve to be punished for being who they are.
This was written by one of my students who gave permission to post it.
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