The latest scandal de jour about Rachel Dolezal, the white former leader of the NAACP in Spokane, Wash., who claims to be black, raises important questions about race and identity ("NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal resigns amid furor over racial identity," June 16).
What does it mean to be "really" black? What does it mean to be authentically black? Is it what is written on your birth certificate? Is there a color chart that shows a dividing line between white skin and black skin?
Blackness can mean many things. For years a single drop of "black blood" from a single black ancestor, no matter how far back, made one black. Over the course of American history, the definition has constantly shifted.
Because of this we often call race a "social construct," recognizing that its biological basis is either non-existent or obscure. It is society, not science, that determines what race we are.
We generally recognize that people of color in the United States have shared a common experience of disfranchisement, alienation and oppression, and that this has shaped an African-American cultural identity.
The cultural and biological lines between black and white, however, have always been in flux.
What seems to be true, however, is that Rachel Dolezal for most of her life has been living as a black woman. She attended an historically black university, married a black man, has black brothers and black sons.
By all accounts she has worked effectively in the Spokane NAACP. For all practical purposes she is a strong black woman who is committed in the struggle for racial justice.
The anger that she has aroused in many people is evidence that American society continues to strenuously police its racial boundaries. In my view she deserves our admiration and praise, not condemnation.
Alexander O. Boulton, Baltimore
The writer teaches African-American history at Stevenson University.