Leid Stories - 06.18.15

Massacre in South Carolina: A ‘Hate Crime’ or Something Else?

Rachel Dolezal and the ‘Science’ of Racial Identity

A prayer meeting Wednesday night at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the oldest AME church in the South, came to a violent end when a white gunman who was among the congregants opened fire, killing nine, including the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of the church and a member of the state Senate. Police are calling the attack a “hate crime.” But is it something else?

And now, the world of “science” chimes in on the Rachel Dolezal saga. An article published yesterday by Live Science features “experts” on ethnicity and racial identity debating whether Dolezal can “choose” an identity different from the one she was born with. Leid Stories discusses the false construct of race and identity in America as central to the science of domination and control.