Misrepresenting Racial Identities

Regarding Rachel Dolezal misrepresenting her racial identity (New York Times, 6/17/2015),  while Ms. Dolezal's behavior appears to be that of a disturbed person, it's really not so unusual.   For 150 years the New York Times and many otherwise reliable historians have portrayed the victims of the 1863 draft riots as black.  In fact, thanks to Adrian Cook's scholarly The Armies of the Streets,  we have long, but very quietly known, that the overwhelming majority of the riot dead were white "rioters" and bystanders, a disturbing number of the dangerous rebels women and children.   The motivations for changing the racial identities of the riots' dead give rise to very interesting questions that have yet to be answered.   The failure of otherwise ethical journalists and historians to object to the distortion of the identifies of the dead raises questions, too.

Draft Riots Death Map (red = "rioter", green = bystander):

 

http://hidden-civil-war.blogspot.com/2014/04/new-york-citys-soldiers-monuments.html

 

http://hidden-civil-war.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-society-for-diffusion-of-political.html

 

http://hidden-civil-war.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-unions-irish-soldiers-and-sailors.html

 

http://hidden-civil-war.blogspot.com/2013/08/new-york-citys-passion-play.html