EDITORIAL: Racial identity and social confusion
It is hard to know which is more confused: Rachel Dolezal or the society in which she lives.
Dolezal is the Spokane woman who let everyone believe she is black even though she was born to two white parents in Troy, Montana, and then used her imaginary race to advance her own career as a social activist.
Now, Dolezal has become a touchstone for a society that more and more has chosen to break down barriers, boundaries and rules. If Bruce Jenner declares he is a woman, then we are supposed to all ignore his birth certificate, his DNA and his still unmodified sexual equipment, and call him Caitlyn. The exception, of course, is his 89-year-old mother, who while sympathetic to her son’s confusion, said, “I still have to call him Bruce. His father and I named him that.”
The parents of Rachel Dolezal — Larry and Ruthann Dolezal — may be even more confused than Esther Jenner. Their daughter didn’t just disown her race; she disowned her parents — and not just ordinary white Montana parents who might not have much experience with black people. These were parents who had adopted four black children to join their own two children in a fundamental Christian home.
They are anything but racist, yet they were no doubt hurt when Rachel introduced an elderly black man as her father, and were puzzled when Rachel claimed to be black just a few years after she sued Howard University for discriminating against her because she is white.
Clearly, something is not right in Rachel’s world.
But now let’s get back to society, where even more seems to be awry. Consider this: Rachel Dolezal, within one week of seeing her life implode as a result of her multiple deceptions, is reportedly entertaining several offers to star in her own reality TV show. As a result, according to the Radar Online entertainment blog, she “recognizes that she is going to need an agent and a publicist, and is going to be hiring a professional team in the next few days.”
Maybe she can hire the same team that is assisting Jenner, who will also have a reality show on the air soon to document his transition from male to female at the age of 65.
We have nothing against people who want to live their own lives their own way, but we wonder what will happen to a society that doesn’t acknowledge reality, but bends over backwards to accommodate every individual obsession as something worthy of social acceptance. From the juvenilization of sex to the legalization of drugs, Western society seems intent on rejecting any and all rules.
In the old days, they had names for this kind of behavior — hedonism, narcissism, egotism. Now, they just call it normal. The question is: Can a society accommodate every individual’s gender-bending, race-transitioning, rules-rejecting lifestyle and still maintain its own structural cohesiveness as a society?
In the next few years, we are probably going to find out.