Embrace equal rights

Charles Caleb Colton said, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” I understand feeling duped, believing someone was someone other than who you thought they were, but what I don’t understand is feeling lessened, somehow denigrated, because someone saw something so special, so desirable in being black that she chose to become black.

When a person is adopted, they are told they are special because they were chosen, not an accident of birth. My understanding is that she was an apt representative, wonderful advocate, forward-thinking leader, fully embraced what she evidently felt was her duty to her adopted race; furthering the equal rights cause. Was she wrong to say she was something she wasn’t? Absolutely.

My feeling is that instead of talking so much about damage control, the NAACP needs to embrace the concept of everyone coming to a place where, as Martin Luther King Jr. stated it better than anyone else ever could: “We judge people by the content of their heart and not the color of their skin.”

I, too, have a dream, that someday no one will have to fight for equal rights, because everyone will be colorblind in their treatment of each other.

Melaine Williams Cheney