Once upon a time, a girl named Rachel Dolezal thought she was black. She sprayed on a tan and permed her hair and that was that. She worked towards racial healing and social justice, until her really mean white parents spilled the beans, which left us feeling flat.
Poetic justice? Karma? What we think about Rachel says a lot about who we are. How does one forge an identity? Politicians of old would play up their status as first generation immigrants. You could be proud to be Italian, or Irish when in truth not very long ago, your last name meant you would be unelectable. I was so proud when Jack Kennedy was elected President. It proved that not all Irish Americans/Catholics were under the Pope’s thumb.
But Rachel was passing as an African American. She lied and said her father was black. No one has mentioned that not very long ago, light-skinned black women might pass as white. Reconstructing themselves to fit into the class and culture of the majority in order to gain access to all that being white in the early Twentieth Century had to offer.
So does that mean that today being perceived as black, or mixed race, is more empowering for young white women, offering them more economic and cultural opportunities?
Can we wear our identity in the same way we pick our clothes? I don’t think so. Being true to our “authentic self” is the first order of business in the world. We might study Spanish, dye our hair black, and live in Puerto Rico, but if our parents and grandparents immigrated from Sweden to MN that doesn’t make us Latino. We can assimilate a certain culture sure, and if we marry into that culture/race the chances are pretty good our children will be able to check that “mixed” box on their college applications. But we are still unabashedly pasty white, no matter how much we may like the music and food of a different race.
Today is Ada’s 91st birthday. Many in her generation changed their names or even denied their Jewish heritage in order to live in America without prejudice before and after the Holocaust. Just look at Madeleine Albright. But not Ada, she fought to keep her identity, and when our little Happy Bud had his Bris, I could tell that she was pleased.
When we all melt into the American pot, sometimes we miss out on the spices that make us the most enticing and liberated country in the world. We need to embrace our differences, add some pablano peppers and cardamom so that we can grow as a nation
Eventually we will all check the mixed box, or maybe that question will no longer be asked – no one race will be marginalized – and then we can truly be “post-racial.” A beautifully pregnant young ER doctor in a Mexican hat does not make her Mexican.
MountainMornings 
Brave of you to tackle this one. I think though that if we can accept Caitlyn Jenner as a woman, we can accept that people can be who they want to be. People convert to Judaism or Catholicism, and the entire spectrum in between. The problem here is that RD lied. She should have “come out” as a white woman who has decided she wants to be black. She’s done no harm and has promoted advocacy for racial justice. Can’t find fault there. Now, as to her relationship with her parents– that’s another issue. Perhaps they’re the ones that should be getting scrutinized.
Not so brave, but it does call into question what race is all about still in our country. I agree we can “be” whoever we want, and I don’t want to tackle gender or religion. I sat on an airplane once next to an older couple ordering a Kosher meal, she finally turned to me and said “You don’t look Jewish!” Genes are hard if not impossible to change.
But you are right, lying was her first sin. And it all goes downhill from there!