Local Washington State NAACP Leader Outed By Parents As White

[Secular Elf]

I just saw this on CNN a few moments ago and I am just wowed by this story and intrigued at the same time.

Rachel Dolezal, Spokane's NAACP Chapter President and part-time Africana Studies professor at Eastern Washington University, has been misleading people about her ethnicity for years, her parents say.

Full story here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...years.html

So this Caucasian woman has since 2007 been passing herself off, a poser, if you will, as an African-American woman, and has risen in the ranks of the NAACP as a local chapter president.

From an anthropological, sociological and psychological perspective I find this fascinating. For some reason Ms. Dolezal identifies as a black woman. Her parents also raised 4 adoptive black children (three African-American, one Haitian), so that may have played a part (not saying that is either good or bad). She may have some intellectual interest in African culture as she was growing up. It would be interesting to learn from a psychological perspective why she would identify as black. The history has been that light-skinned, mulatto, African-Americans have passed for white. This is the reverse, and it seems to me to be a new creature to learn about.

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.

[Iroscato]

A pity that my anti-Daily Mail filter in my brain still works, and all I see is a blank webpage.
I will investigate other sources

[Nope]

This was on the morning news. There is some evidence that she might have sent her own self threatening mail. It is a very odd story. When I first heard it and saw the woman's photo I thought that her mother must have cheated on her father and that they were both in denial about their daughter's real father or maybe the woman had been switched at birth. Later they showed a young photo of her. In the photo, she was blonde and very white.

[vorlon13]

She's as black as Bill Clinton, what's the problem ?

Why is the NAACP asking about race on their internal paperwork ?

Considering her familial ties (siblings) I'm finding this whole brouhaha offensive in the extreme.

[Cato]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9XQDofW17A

[Nope]

Here is the CNN link to the story

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/12/us/washing...-identity/

Here is a story about the hate mail

http://www.kxly.com/news/spokane-news/qu...t/33512308

It is a very strange story

[Nope]

      

Same woman.

[Alex K]

And this is not The Onion?

But it's really difficult to make a case against her without getting entangled in contradictions and bigotry, don't you think?

[Longhorn]

Uhhh.....okay O_o

That's....um....delusional? Or purposefully deceptive?

[Secular Elf]

It reminds me now of a character in Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" that I saw on PBS during the late 90's. There was a lesbian couple in the story, one white, one black. The black one turned out to be a white woman posing. That was an interesting twist in the story I was not expecting.

---

And this is not The Onion?

But it's really difficult to make a case against her without getting entangled in contradictions and bigotry, don't you think?

True. This story is so complex that to take sides on the various issues is daunting. Mixed feelings. Is she mentally ill? Who can say? Was she at one point deceptive but then later own began believing her own lies. Who knows? Has she done good for African-American society? Perhaps. It is really hard to judge her, I find.