I’ve never been the most politically correct person.That’s not to say I’m bigoted or racist in any way, but, as has been widely attributed to one of my heroes – Mark Twain – I’ve always felt that “sacred cows make the best hamburger.”
I’ve always been opinionated, and feel once you talk about the uncomfortable things, then they become acceptable… eventually. I also like to see how far I can push things, but that’s between me and my psychotherapist.
However, I’ve been having trouble lately with the issue of identity and acceptance.
A few weeks ago, everyone was loudly celebrating Caitlyn Jenner – the transgendered Olympian Bruce Jenner – for bravely coming out and being photographed for the coveted cover of Vanity Fair. I remarked to my wife and children that we were indeed seeing awesome social change right before our eyes. We grew up in an unfortunate time when such subjects were shunned and vilified, not accepted and spoken of in the open. So, I thought, “Cool, look at how far we’ve come as a society.”
But then in the past week, a woman in Spokane, Wash. who apparently has been an advocate for minority rights revealed that although she is Caucasian, she “identifies” as black and has been passing herself as African-American. She was forced to resign as a leader of the NAACP and lost her job teaching African studies at a university. She was shunned and vilified.
But why? Is it because she lied and hid her original, white identity, while Jenner was open about identifying as a woman? Is it because one is about choosing your gender and the other about choosing your race? And if so, is there a difference? If someone can self-identify as a woman, even though they were born a man, and be celebrated for becoming who they truly were inside, then why can’t someone choose to identify with a particular racial group or ancestry?
I’m guilty of saying “Irish” when asked for my familial background, even though there is some German, English, French Canadian, First Nations – and possibly poodle – in there as well. That’s how I self-identify.
And in the end, if we’re not hurting anyone else, why should it matter who we identify with inside? Life is short, and we shouldn’t live it to please anyone else’s standards or expectations. So the next time I see you in the street, or in the mall, I hope we – as humans – can just smile and accept each other… whoever you are, inside or out.
