A week ago, few us knew the name Rachel Dolezal, now she’s everywhere. Pretending to be black, she was outed by her parents. Turns out there’s some sort of family feud which precipitated their revelation. Meanwhile, it appears she was an effective leader at the NAACP which is now overshadowed by this news. Yesterday, there was a commentary on the radio that asked whether America was having a problem with this whole thing because we couldn’t imagine wanting to be black. Ouch.
Today The New York Times ran an article about Irish students who come over on J-1 Visas that allow them to work in the US. The article used stereotypes of the Irish as being heavy drinkers with wild behavior that seemed to imply that the tragedy this week, involving the death of 5 Irish students when a balcony fell, was somehow their fault. Not only is the timing of this article offensive, so is the content. When the rest of the world is sending their condolences for the tragic loss of life, The Times is taking this opportunity to perpetuate prejudices and misconceptions. Ouch. The outrage to the article was justified and The Times has since apologized.
For as much as all like to think we, as a society, are enlightened and we see everyone as equals regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity, seems like we are reminded every day, this just isn’t true. Ouch.
spooningwithsmokey 