In defence of Rachel Dolezal

Rachel Dolezal lied. A white woman pretending to be black. This is the thing that will follow her for the rest of her life.

The top job in the fastest growing sport for women, in England, is held by a man. Mark Sampson is Head coach of England’s Women’s football team and this is somehow completely acceptable.

What message does this send to young girls and former players who want to get into coaching? That no matter their effort they will always come second to a man?

It's unfortunate, perceptions of women have stagnated and even digressed in recent times and racism and classism have stepped up their game to create a cocktail of pure hate.

Rachel Dolezal lied to get a job she cared about and was probably very much qualified to do, apart from being white of course, and had she been a man the matter would have ended with her swift dismissal and unremarkable replacement. Instead the media and Internet have taken her to be some sort of vile, child eating villain.

And how the people love a female villain to set alight at the stake on a pile of inflammatory and hate filled blogs and tweets. ‘Burn the witch’ they cry all the time forgetting their own daughters are watching; fearful of their own dreams to be more than they are.      

No one has taken the time to ask for a measured response to why she did this or highlighted her achievements on behalf of the NAACP.

Caroline Criado-Perez received all manner of threats during her campaign to have a female face on the new banknotes (Jane Austin will appear on £10 note in 2017) and Sue Perkins suffered the same because of a fabricated story about her hosting, that standard of maleness, Top Gear.  

With such unwarranted attacks on women of merit it is no wonder that more teenage girls are turning to the porn industry, unconcerned that this will haunt them indefinitely, out of a lack of self-worth.

We are in danger of raising a generation of girls who are too afraid to fulfil their potential because they are learning just how harsh our society comes down on women who dare to ascend, despite their hard labour and achievements. 

 Rachel Dolezal lied and has lost the faith of those who trusted her, but the attacks that followed were extreme and said more about our society than her immeasurable lack of moral fibre.