Rachel Dolezal is the media's latest tabloid pretending to be real news extravaganza. What has been missed in all the hoopla by seemingly most if not all who have written about this story, is the hypocrisy.
First, race is a social construct. Now that we have that out of the way, let's get to the hypocrisy. Days ago, Vanity Fair released the cover photo of Caitlyn formerly Bruce Jenner and most proclaimed it a joyous event and an iconic representation of how far the country has come with the acceptance of not only transgendered people, but of people choosing to live their lives on their terms. Then the story of Rachel Dolezal breaks. She is the president of the Spokane, WA chapter of the NAACP. Her story is news because she has been living and/or representing herself as a black woman, but her parents claim she is in fact white.
One would think in this newly crowned progressive and accepting society, that it would not be an issue. If Bruce Jenner's truth is that he is a woman and now wants to live his outside life the way he has always felt inside, then why can't the same be true of Rachel Dolezal? Perhaps she identifies more strongly with black culture. What is wrong with that? If we are to truly accept people who are living their lives authentically, that should not end with race. There are allegedly other issues at play here, like whether Dolezal falsified hate crime claims. That should be the focus of the articles about her, not necessarily claims of race. I say not necessarily because we don't know the full story. This race claim may be an elaborate scheme, but until we know that, the story shouldn't be that she can't or shouldn't live her life as a black woman especially if we are truly accepting and Bruce Jenner can now live his/her life as a woman.
