A friend said to me in a telephone conversation two days ago, "So Blakka, what yu going to do with white woman who has been pretending to be black all these years?"

Well, I half sighed and half laughed. And in the century of silence after my humourless chuckle, I sensed sombre seriousness on the other end of the call and it dawned on me that he was actually waiting on an answer.

I took a long time to respond because that comment felt like the ultimate example of a cross between a joke and a rhetorical question. And when I finally responded, I just admitted that I didn't know yet what to really say because I was still trying to process the story and all that it means. I'm still processing. And yes, I'm talking about the Rachel Dolezal story. And I'm sure by now you've heard about it.

Controversy

Every media outlet (mainstream, social and anti-social) seems to have a feature on the intriguing story about the controversy that has erupted over the racial identity of this woman whose parents 'outed her' as white after she pretended for years to be black. The renowned 'black' artist and civil rights activist, who was also a teacher of Africana Studies at Eastern Washington University, appeared to have fooled the world for decades about her true racial identity. She was forced to resign on Monday from her post as president of the NAACP's Spokane chapter after story come to bump.

Like I told my friend on the phone, so much has already been said about that Dolezal story, I have nothing to add, at least not right now. I admit to being overwhelmed with confusion in the face of it all. Yes, peeps, there is so much tied up in this shade and colour of skin and racial origin thing, that I really and truly don't even know where to begin. What I know though, is that that story is happening in the great big USA. And based on recent and recurring incidences between young black people and some law enforcement officers in that same great big USA, I'm imagining that many young black men might probably be happy to successfully pull off a Rachel Dolezal type of transformation; but in the reverse - just to increase their chances of staying alive!

Bleaching cream

Look here nuh, a story in yesterday's STAR about the police seizing two thousand bottles of bleaching cream highlights the pervasive urge among many self-hating dark-skinned Jamaicans to attempt a reverse version of what Dolezal did, even if it leaves them looking like zombies, because they're convinced that it will make them better. What I really find interesting, too, is the fervour and the fever that Dolezal's story has generated in the press. A cynical side of me is imagining some media houses in the States almost happily saying "y'all can now stop griping about police brutality, racism and all the ills, faced by blacks. Being black has its perks, too, and ain't no clearer example than this here nice Caucasian lady telling a little white lie, by pretending to be black!"

Dark-skinned citizens

In my mind, there are other pressing 'black' stories and issues out there that need more urgent attention. I hardly hear anything in the media, for example, about the people who died from a petrol station explosion and heavy flooding in Ghana last week.

Yes, fire broke out late last Wednesday at a filling station in the nation's capital, Accra, where people had sought shelter from heavy rains that caused widespread flooding. According to one report, nearly 200 victims were burnt beyond recognition where they stood under the station's awning or were trapped and incinerated in the wreckage of cars and minivans on the station's forecourt - and wi nuh hear peep bout it over yah!

Also, authorities in the Dominican Republic are now busy rounding up dark-skinned citizens who were born there and lived there all their lives and deporting them just because they are of Haitian parentage. According to an online story on the issue by Nsenga Burton, "While we've spent days discussing a white woman who is pretending to be black, actual black people are having their rights trampled on with little to no fanfare in the US media." As Jackass say, di world nuh level!

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