No, for the time being I’m not going to write an ‘In defense of…” post about the whole Rachel Dolezal mess. I don’t think I have the facts to do it properly, though it could be an interesting one. Still, I came across an article by Priscilla Frank in the Huffington Post that kind of bothered me. You can find it here, though the gist of it is that Frank accuses Dolezal of both plagiarizing and violating the copyright on a work dating back to the 1840. It’s an interesting theory, the problem is that, if the work dates back to 1840, then it is in the public domain, and if it is in the public domain there can be no copyright infringement.
Yes, Dolezal has made some questionable claims to say the least, and there are plenty of reasons to criticize her, but this particular article feels like a cheap shot, and an attempt to kick someone while she is down, and while I am not going to defend Dolezal, I do believe we should try to retain a sense of fairness.