As part of a broad and nauseating liberal "dialogue" on race, HuffPost put something out on the 9th that was interesting. Not for the reason they intended, but because it had something philosophical to it.
Both of Miriam Zinter's parents were black, but due to having whites in her lineage, she was born white.
Here's an excerpt from what she wrote in the article:
I was outside my house gardening a few weekends ago when a neighbor, whom I had known for almost 30 years, stopped by so I could pet his large, fluffy dogs. I took my gloves off, squatted down to give the dogs a really good scratching around their ears and felt the sun on my back. What could be better? And then my neighbor said: “Why do you have a ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign on your front lawn when all those people do is kill each other?”
My lovely day screeched to a halt.
“You know I’m Black, right?” I said, standing up as tall as my 5’4” frame would allow, the sun shining on my blond hair. I continued to pet his dogs, because I needed the comfort of petting dogs at that moment, and because I needed to keep my hands busy so they didn’t slap that man’s face.
Her growing up with a black family in less racially integrated times means she faced some unique challenges; that's all in the article if anyone is interested. What caught my interest is her identifying as black, despite presenting as Hitler's archetypal Aryan. I don't think it's wrong that she does that, I just think it's something that teases on the loose fabric of identity politics. Zinter claiming she's black is probably more acceptable than me claiming to be Native American based on a 1/8 component, and naturally there are tons of shades of gray between my case and hers.
Can people claim race sort of like how they claim gender—where an amount of respect is implied for what one identifies as, as long as it isn't totally random or arbitrary (and preferably has some supporting info)? Do y'all agree with Zinter that she is black, or do you think Zinter is a white woman who had a unique experience of black life?