Skin color is in the news today. My dad criticized my crayon work when I was five, clarifying that people in the coloring book could be black, brown, white, peach, red or yellow but certainly not purple, green and blue. I stomped out of the kitchen, upset he hadn’t noticed the hard work I had done on staying in the lines. What are societal lines? Rachel Dolezal has certainly crossed them.
Dolezal’s family played their rook: Rachel’s white, not black like their adopted children. She heads the NAACP in Spokane, Washington and for years, it’s reported, the family’s threatened to come out about the truth. Check … and mate.
I was in the chess club in high school. I was smart and wanted to impress the smart boys. I was the only girl so I got lots of attention. High school girls some times grow up into adult women who still need attention. I’ll admit it. I like the attention today, but what kind of attention are you gettting? Is it about the truthful stories, sound bites and statistics you’re sharing? Or are they lies?
It’s hard to argue the truth when one person, born as a caucasian, states they’re black to get a job and represent black people.
Race is always an angle of interest to the media. What do you have to say about it? Don’t just put your pawns up to fight, get in there deep and look at your own life. What stories can you share? Be truthful, however. A knight might jump on your story and set the record straight.
