Spokane, WA — 37-year old Rachel Dolezal, a local NAACP leader in Spokane, Washington, is under fire for reportedly disguising herself as an African American women. Her mother, Ruthanne Dolezal, who has had no contact with her daughter for years, recently told the The Spokesman Review that her daughter has been hiding her true identity, and claims the disguise began after the Dolezal family adopted four African-American children.
The Dolezals are apparently not of African descent at all, and are instead mixed with Czech, Swedish, German and a trace of Native American.
But Rachel Dolezal is not just an NAACP leader, she is also a African studies professor at Eastern Washington University and works for the Office of Police Ombudsman Commission in Spokane. On her application for this application, she identified herself as white, black and American Indian.
When asked by local journalists about her race, she replied: “That question is not as easy as it seems. There’s a lot of complexities… and I don’t know that everyone would understand that.” She later added, “We’re all from the African continent.”
But Does It Even Matter If She’s Black?
Based on social media responses, most African Americans are highly upset. But some say it doesn’t really matter.
Dolezal is credited with re-energizing the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, which aims to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination. For her work, she as been dubbed “one of the Inland Northwest’s most prominent civil rights activists”.
Long before her true race was discovered, she received hate mail and death threats at the NAACP branch from anonymous people who were assumed to be white supremacists.
Watch some of her recent interviews below: