White Dog, Black Chicken

Remember the news story about Rachel, the former NAACP leader, who identified as transracial, i.e. black, while being born "white"?? People went bananas , so angry about this "deranged" woman. Yet, I still don't understand why anybody would care....Worst of all-- the outrage seemed focused on the fact that she dared to look "blacker" than she was! (by tanning, oh my!)

I have one dog with pink skin, and one dog with black skin (yes, you have to dig in the fur to see--but it's there!) Raised two white skinned chickens, one with black feathers--and now have two black skinned chickens, with blue ears!! Does anyone talk about my multiracial chicken emporium?  Unfortunately, no...Not even the chickens...No scandal here.

 Anyone who travels to South America would be mesmerized by their total disregard for "race". Tons of mixed marriages and offspring, every color shade you can imagine, and do you know why? Because people who's ancestors were raised in warm sunny climates are darker (gasp!) than those that come from less sunny climates! (yes, those fair skinned Europeans they happened to mate with). It's about vitamin D absorption people, yet we use this as a way to actually categorize people !!!

It's about as logical as grouping folks by their lactose intolerance, red hair, or hairy chests...Imagine school and doctor forms with "Check here for racial group": Hairy, Stout, Freckled or Curly haired.

As a mom, I never saw any logic to racism and we simply told our son: race is a biological adaptation that people have hangs up about... Skin color has only to do with your ancient ancestor’s proximity to the sun! We were all once black, moved north and lost our color to absorb vitamin D in a cloudier climate, so we wouldn't die.

But of course, this results in my poor boy asking me throughout the summer (as his skin darkens with the sun) Am I Mexican this week ? Or with an even darker tan—am I black? So yes, we can all be temporarily black, or brown...But (sigh) still can't get those blue chicken ears, no matter how hard I try...