When the news broke that Rachel Dolezal would be publishing her memoir, In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World, in March 2017, my response was complicated.
Part of me relishes the thought of Dolezal finally having a chance to state her case fully, rather than in the heavily mediated systems of unfairly overscrutinized (and therefore inherently otherizing) presentation she was subjected to when she was initially exposed (and later came out) as a human being born biologically white who identified as African American.
At the same time, however, the news ups the risk of pre-trauma for someone (i.e., me) who identifies as someone who has read the book. The idea that this memoir has been written, and will soon be available to be literally read—and therefore subject to the opinions and criticisms of people who actually believe that having literally read it entitles them to opinions and criticisms—constitutes an act of violence against my self-conception, IMHO.