UPDATED 19/6: Choosing one's identity

I'm old. [How old are you? Ed.] I'm so old that I can remember when the doctor or midwife said either "It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!" and so it was. The baby didn't have any choice about its "sex" (as it was quaintly called back then) or "gender" (the politically correct term nowadays).

So also with race. Whether it was recorded on the birth certificate or not, it was generally accepted that a baby would be whatever his/her parents were (assuming they were of the same race) or "mixed" or "coloured", whatever, if the parents were of different races.

Now, thanks to the meeja hype about Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner and Rachel Dolezal, we know that times have changed... really changed!

Behold this pair of celebrities! The one on the left is not a male. The one on the right is not white. Whoda thunk it to look at them?! But hey, this is the 21st century. It's not about what God or nature intended, or who your parents were, or what the doctor said when you popped out. It's about who you think you are and who you want to be! Thus endeth the lesson.

UPDATE: Further reading: "Race and gender: I feel therefore I am", by one of Walt's favourites, Margaret Wente, in the Globe and Mail 19/6/2015.