Rachel Dolezal, civil rights activist, quits NAACP after 'black' row

[webfact]

Head of Spokane NAACP quits amid furor over racial identity
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Rachel Dolezal resigned as president of the NAACP's Spokane chapter Monday just days after her parents said she is a white woman posing as black — a dizzyingly swift fall for an activist credited with injecting remarkable new energy into the civil rights organization.

The furor touched off fierce debate around the country over racial identity and divided the NAACP itself.

"In the eye of this current storm, I can see that a separation of family and organizational outcomes is in the best interest of the NAACP," Dolezal, who was elected the chapter's president last fall, wrote on the group's Facebook page. "Please know I will never stop fighting for human rights."

Dolezal, a 37-year-old woman with a light brown complexion and dark curly hair, graduated from historically black Howard University, teaches African studies at a local university and was married to a black man. For years, she publicly described herself as black and complained repeatedly of being the victim of racial hatred in the heavily white region.

The uproar that led to her resignation began last week after Dolezal's parents told the news media their daughter is white with a trace of Native American heritage. They produced photos of her as girl with fair skin and straight blond hair.

Her mother, Ruthanne Dolezal of Troy, Montana, told reporters she has had no contact with her daughter in several years. She said Rachel began to "disguise herself" as black after her parents adopted four black children more than a decade ago.

Rachel Dolezal initially dismissed the controversy, saying it arose from a legal dispute that has divided the family, and repeatedly sidestepped questions about her race. "That question is not as easy as it seems," she said.

Late last week, the national NAACP stood by her, saying "one's racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership."

But Dolezal came under increasing pressure from local chapter members to resign.

Kitara Johnson, an NAACP member in Spokane who has been calling on Dolezal to step down, welcomed the resignation as "the best thing that can happen right now."

Johnson said she hopes Dolezal remains a member of the organization.

"She knows her stuff," Johnson said.

Dolezal has been widely credited with reinvigorating Spokane's moribund NAACP chapter. In resigning, she boasted that under her leadership, the chapter acquired an office, increased membership, improved finances and made other improvements.

"The NAACP is not concerned with the racial identity of our leadership," Cornell William Brooks, national president of the NAACP, said in a statement Monday. Dolezal "has decided to resign to ensure that the Spokane branch remains focused on fighting for civil and human rights."

The controversy drew conflicting views from other NAACP leaders.

"I care that she was trying to make the world a better place every day," said Frank Hawkins Jr., the NAACP president in Las Vegas. "The color of a person's skin does not matter."

Don Harris, a white man who heads the NAACP in the Phoenix area, criticized her, saying: "What do you gain in saying, 'I'm an African-American' when you're not?"

Dolezal has not returned numerous calls to her home and offices from The Associated Press.

In 2002, Dolezal sued Howard University, where she attended graduate school, for discrimination based on "race, pregnancy, family responsibilities and gender, as well as retaliation," according to a 2005 District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruling in the case.

Dolezal, who then went by her married name, Rachel Moore, claimed the university blocked her appointment as a teaching assistant, failed to hire her as an art teacher upon graduation and removed some of her pieces from a student art exhibition in favor of works by African American students. The appeals court upheld a lower court's ruling throwing out the lawsuit.

Dolezal was fired Monday as a weekly columnist for The Pacific Northwest Inlander, Spokane's alternative weekly.

City officials are investigating whether she lied about her ethnicity when she landed an appointment to Spokane's police oversight board. On her application, she said her ethnic origins included white, black and American Indian.

On Friday, police said they were suspending investigations into racial harassment complaints filed by Dolezal before the uproar, including one from earlier this year in which she said she received hate mail at her NAACP office.

Police released files showing that one package did not bear a date stamp or barcode, meaning it was probably not handled through the post office.

Dolezal's parents appeared on the "Today" show Monday and said they hope to reconcile with their daughter.

"We hope that Rachel will get the help that she needs to deal with her identity issues. Of course, we love her," her mother said.
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Associated Press writers Matthew Barakat in Washington, D.C., Gene Johnson in Seattle, Ryan Van Velzer in Phoenix and Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-06-16

[Seastallion]

If a white woman who claims to have black heritage, and whose looks make the claim credible, is discriminated against, it is racism albeit her claim of heritage is false.

She sounds to be a bit of a dingbat though. A true wixxxx. (Not sure if the"w" word is offensive as the "n" word...it shouldn't be.) (short for white "n" or wannabe "n")

[Credo]

Her problem isn't just about race, but about lying about it.

[ezzra]

Baaa baaaa white sheep in an imposter black fleece.... while 100 millions black people would

wish they were white, she would be the only one in the world who would want to be black....

Edited June 16, 2015 by ezzra

[little mary sunshine]

Another Fraud..PIECE OF TRASH...Hope she has to repay her FREE Tuition

At Howard U.

[Loptr]

As a part of this whole sad affair, a new word has been added to the collective lexicon... Transracial is the new buzzword for the MSM to describe this confused state of racial origin... I guess that word is more PC than the urban dictionary term for these folks...

[RickBradford]

Another narcissistic do-gooder caught out in serial lying, because they always treat their "feelings" as being more important than objective fact.

The curse of the modern age.

[Songhua]

[BarnicaleBob]

I agree that the issue is not about her race but about being untruthful on various official applications for positions. Untruthfulness is grounds for termination form most government and corporate entities.

She could have been a member and even be in a leadership role without being or having any trace of being black, she had no valid reason to lie other than ego.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in 1909-1910 in New York City by a group of white and black intellectuals. United in their opposition to the gradualism preached by Booker T. Washington, the NAACP leaders sought, first, to make whites aware of the need for racial equality. To do this, the organization launched a program of speech making, lobbying, and publicizing the issue. The NAACP attacked segregation and racial inequality through the courts. It won a Supreme Court decision in 1915 against the grandfather clause (used by many southern states to prevent blacks from voting) and another in 1927 against the all-white primary.

[sdanielmcev]

Liberal wackiness at its' finest.

[Seastallion]

image.jpg

Is that her?

I wouldn't have ever thought she's got even the slightest blackness in her.

[rapom]

image.jpg

Is that her?

I wouldn't have ever thought she's got even the slightest blackness in her.

She's had the blackness. Her ex-husband gave it to her.

[Songhua]

image.jpg

Is that her?

I wouldn't have ever thought she's got even the slightest blackness in her.

Yes, that is her. Here's one taken in her younger days:

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

worst fro ever

[canman]

This woman should be tried for fraud. She has claimed that she was brough up by a white family in south africa and treated like a slave and was even whipped with an old fashioned slave whip by her parents. No wonder her parents outted her. She has also accused many of racist acts towards her.

The trouble with race relations in America is a woman like this with power can make any accustaion she wants and it will be accepted as fact.

[NeverSure]

[Scott]

Posts removed.

[Pete Beale]

image.jpg

Is that her?

I wouldn't have ever thought she's got even the slightest blackness in her.

She's had the blackness. Her ex-husband gave it to her.

When he used to beat her and their child ?

[razer]

Who cares?

[Jingthing]

The woman has mental issues, but I'm not sure that she was really hurting anyone and I wonder if exposing her served much of a purpose. Anyway, it's done now.

[RickBradford]

The woman has mental issues, but I'm not sure that she was really hurting anyone and I wonder if exposing her served much of a purpose. Anyway, it's done now.

Surely it's a good thing for serial liars in positions of power in federally funded organisations to be called out.

The fact that most of them get by with it is no reason not to nail one when you can.

What is interesting about all these extreme narcissists is their inability to apologize in any way for their wrongdoing. Dolezal's non-apology is eerily similar to Brian Williams' inability to say that he lied, Clinton's "misspoke" or Peter Gleick's "error of judgment" due to "outrage".

[Jingthing]

I don't know. Isn't it a sign of progress that some white people want to be black?

[RickBradford]

What sort of progress do you have in mind?

[Jingthing]

That's obvious dude. Imagine someone in Jim Crow south lying to be black. Would never happen. I think no need to overblow this case. She has issues ... that's all.

[RickBradford]

I still don't see what notion of "progress" is achieved by abandoning objective truth ("I am not black") in favor of feelings ("My mental issues make me feel like I want to be black, therefore I am").

In a person who holds an important position in a federally funded organisation, this is not behavior that can simply be waved aside. It needs to be called out for what it is. It's lying.

[Jingthing]

I give up then. Didn't say what you think I said.

[Chicog]

Gets murkier. Seems her parents may have motives for throwing her to the sharks.

[NickJ]

Its a very rare and serious condition she is suffering from.....Reverse Jacksonism....Eventualy she will get darker and darker near the end she may become very talented and start recording hit singles.

[Jingthing]

Humor break.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rn4-zO4KiQ

I don't entirely agree with Stewart here about how rare it is for white people to identify as black. I've met white people like that.

Edited June 16, 2015 by Jingthing

[NeverSure]

If she was receiving a salary and benefits from the taxpayers or donors by fraud I think she should go to jail.