Local Washington State NAACP Leader Outed By Parents As White

[Secular Elf]

Ethically however, she is in deep shit.  She lied on her forms about her race, and she is now a professor of African-American Studies at a college, and a local NAACP chapter president.  It will be interesting to see how this story will end.

Ethically I think she's fine. Legally she might not be. If some of those forms were legal documents, then lying on them might be a criminal offense. However, I don't see anything wrong with a white person being a professor of African-American studies, nor being a NAACP chapter president. I don't really see any ethical issue with lying about your race on unofficial / non-legal documents, especially if your prospects would be restricted in some way if you didn't lie.

For example, if she was required to be non-white to become a NAACP chapter president, then I don't think it's an ethics issue to lie on the form; that requirement is discriminatory, and her lying could be seen as an act of civil disobedience.

people were happy enough with what she was up to when they thought she was black.

Boom! Perfect response. Can't kudos that post enough.

That is a good point. I did not mean to imply that her race or her self-identification as posing black discounted her from leadership. The NAACP itself has stated that race is not a criteria for leadership positions. They have both white and black people on boards and officer positions. I think one of them said it best that it is a question of integrity. When the local chapter asked for Rachel Dolazal's resignation when she cancelled a meeting to explain herself, I do think that a lot of her colleagues feel betrayed, let down, and lied to by her.

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It sure is strange, she must have some real hang-ups about being white to do that. An extreme case of white guilt maybe?

But then America has this crazy rule where having just one black greatgreatgreatgreatgreat grandparent makes you fully black so who knows, she actually could be.

It is the same with claiming Native American ancestry. Some tribes will allow you to claim membership if you can prove you have 1/16 Indian blood in your DNA.