What is the sensationalist media coverage of events like the Rachel Dolezal identity case and the Texas pool party disturbance telling us about society? Why do we partake of the media coverage? If those two events seem compelling, wait until we hear more about the white cop who shot his wife in her car while other cops were trying to negotiate with him---then while his dead wife lay in the car, along with his child, his fellow cops comforted him once he gave up. So, there I go again.

The most positive thing I can conclude about the recording and sensationalizing of these events is that our society is long overdue in facing our racial divides, the violence toward women, and our prejudice against forms of sexual behavior which may be different from our own (to name a few things) and that the constant media coverage is helping us over the hurdles of our own reluctance to change and to become more tolerant of the differences of others---and, in the case of perps, their similarities.  

The white perception of people of color as "scary", "less-than", and "exploitable" runs so deep in the subconscious that it is almost impossible to isolate. The universal disseminating of films of white police exerting force against blacks is a necessary step in revealing innate prejudice against blacks.

In it's primal form, I think the white policeman looks at a person who is black and sees the color and its connotation before he sees the person and actual behavior. When he looks at a white person he sees the person and his actual behavior.  I've observed this phenomena over a lifetime---which includes my youth when the black kids had their own swimming pool which we called the "ink well".

It's my belief that the now constant media juxtaposition of police toward white vs.toward blacks serves a purpose in that eventually pure racism in these situations will become self-evident and popular attitudes as well as police attitudes will change. If not, our society will stagnate. But I am concerned about the exhibitionism within the media process.

What puzzles me most about the Dolezal case and got me to thinking about exhibitionism is the actions of the parents, particularly their interview on Fox News. (For the moment I'll exclude the interview with Rachel's brother). Rachel is not a mass murderer nor does she represent a danger to society. The fact that the parents engaged in the interview indicates to me that gaining the fame of a national interview is more important to them than the welfare of their own daughter. The parents are first rate exhibitionists who demonstrated the behavior of dissecting their young---not behavior that can sustain a society.

Perhaps exhibitionism is the root cause of all societal collapse. The roaring twenties was followed by financial disaster and world war. The desire for "anything goes if it makes me feel all precious and people see me doing it" is a version of let's eat the seed corn and revel all night long. I could mention the fall of Rome, the Ottoman Empire, and Easter Island---but I won't.

As I began to write this piece a red-shouldered hawk alighted on a fence post about forty yards away from me. They are normally too reclusive to land so near but the slight fog on my windows from all the rain obscured my movements enough for me to grapple for my binoculars and watch him as he searched for breakfast. Oh, a small snake. Normal behavior for a hawk. How refreshing, I thought.