Of course it's about identity

Race may be a social construct, but it is based on a biology that is, at this point, immutable. One drop was enough to be categorized as inferior to the purebred blend.

We could say that in America, race describes your heritage. Where your ancestors came from and how they carried on after they arrived. For most, black describes a person whose heritage is the Sub-Saharan African experience on American soil.

The heritage of the European experience on American soil is what most consider to be white.

In high school, two white acquaintances told me they didn't think of me as black (which I think it was supposed to be a compliment).

As an adult, a black family friend often teases my mom about how my siblings and I are not black enough.

So what, in addition to wigs and weaves and manufactured tan, does Rachel Dolezal mean when she says she is black?

Of course it's about identity.

An Angry Day

After a day or so of paying attention moderate attention to the story about a now former NAACP leader passing as black, I was ready to return to my casually peripheral awareness of the news. Donald Trump is running for president? Yawn. But it was not to be.

An LA Times piece set me in a bad mood for the day. More particularly, the following passage:

I came across a series of video interviews conducted by a young white student relying on professor Dolezal to deconstruct black women.

According to Dolezal — speaking as one of us — we're always worrying about our hair. And how we dress. And how we talk. And whether to use our EBT cards to buy groceries when white customers are around.

Sometimes we want to be free to not care about our appearance, she said. But we don't want whites to think "those people have a lower standard of hygiene."

This is all a "fairly universal experience for black women in a majority white area," she insisted as the camera rolled.

Really? The core of our actions is fear of white people? We're so cowed, flinching in fear of an imaginary fist, we expend inordinate amounts of energy considering how best to prevent a two second side eye from a relatively pale stranger?

Uh, no. How dare she suggest we can't think of ourselves without reference to white people?

  

Mid-morning, a comment from Jay Smooth appeared in one of my twitter feeds:

"I certainly can't be seen as white and be Izaiah's mom," <-- How, how, how is Matt Lauer letting that one go with no follow up q?

Wait, what? How can I not be incensed and offended by the implications of that sentence in quotes? Halle Berry. Shemar Moore. My mom's pastor & his wife, whose youngest daughter is Ethiopian. A woman at the church I used to attend, who adopted a two kids out of foster care. A friend from college, whose mom was kicked out of the house when the family learned she was pregnant by a black man. A friend from junior high. A friend from…you see my point, right?

My mind is still hissing like steam escaping. More puppies and rainbows and good comedy, please.