Bizarre, Society, Torts

NAACP Official Faces Accusations That She Is White . . . From Her Mother

rachel3_t620-1.pngThere is another controversy over the veracity of representations of minority status in Washington. We previously discussed the controversy raised by the allegedly false claims of Senator Elizabeth Warren that she is a Native American. In this case, however, the accused is the head of a NAACP chapter and she is being accused of lying by her own mother. Worse yet, some have suggested that Rachel Dolezal, who is the head of the NAACP’s chapter in Spokane, planted hate mail at her office.

Dolezal has described her ethnicity as white, black, and American Indian in past papers and applications. However, her mother, Ruthanne, said that she is Czech, Swedish, and German, along with some “faint traces” of Native American heritage.

That has led to angry responses from different groups that she represented herself as a minority when she was selected for different positions. Dolezal has called the controversy a “multi-layered issue” and insisted “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 then added “We’re all from the African continent.” Many have interpreted that statement as a claim that, since mankind itself has been traced to Africa, everyone is an African to some degree. The definition is not sufficient for various groups. It raises, as did the Warren controversy, the basis for claiming minority status — a status that can give an edge in applications or hirings.

In addition, critics have raised suspicious racially motivated incidents reported by Dolezal while she was in Coeur d’Alene, including the discovery of a swastika on the Human Rights Education Institute’s door. Likewise, Spokane police records for February and March of this year showed that a hate mail package Dolezal reported receiving at the NAACP’s post office box did not bear a date stamp or barcode. Dolezal denies responsibility for those incidents.

The question is how to handle such cases in not only definition how to prove or what constitutes minority status or how to respond to allegedly false claims. If one receives payment for holding a position secured by assurance of minority status, can it be an actionable from of fraud or misrepresentation for the purposes of criminal or civil liability?

Source: Spokesman

280 thoughts on “NAACP Official Faces Accusations That She Is White . . . From Her Mother”

  1. Oh, I get it. The controversy is “nuanced” and none of us is smart enough to figure out if a European should have benefitted from programs that explicitly required recipients to be a minority.

    How lovely that her defense was so disdainful.

    There are always going to be people of low character in the world who will lie to take advantage of benefit program.

  2. Due to the gravity of this issue and how our very democracy hangs in the balance until we can get to the bottom of this skin tone problem, I hope we can depend on the Professor to continue to follow this deeply disturbing story and to post as many follow-up stories as are needed to get to the root of this evil.

  4. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is 2 feet taller than black wife. She has dark skin. Kids lighter skin. One other thing, Bill de Blasio keeps blowing off Hillary Clinton events.
    He does not indorse queen Hillary. Maybe Bill is looking to get into race? Not color race, but presidential race.

  6. So, we know that her mother may not have been black, but what about her father? Not a word about him and his racial composition. Is he a mystery? Seems like it. Obama, considered to be out first black President, undeniably had a white mother and a black father, yet people have no problem considering him black. It’s all about definitions.

    I had a friend in law school who was attending the program on a three-year, fully paid, Indian scholarship. She had long blond hair and bright blue eyes. She claimed to be Indian, so, for purposes of those handing out the Indian scholarships, she was.

  7. Paul, On the subject of Shakespeare, I saw a production of As You Like It @ a Shakespearean Theatre in Ct. when I was in high school. Touchstone is the witty court jester, and one of my favorite characters. It seems I have a court jester/stalker. If only he were witty or informed.

  8. Paul, Absolutely. Spike Lee also understands Italians, growing up w/ them. I don’t like a lot of what Lee spouts off about. But, Do The Right Thing was a thought provoking flick.

    1. Nick – Mookie is the highest paid pizza delivery boy in the world. I think Spike’s early movies are better, he has less of a chip on his shoulder. Now the chip has become a plank.

  9. Pingback: RTFTLC | Faking It

  10. Oh, yeah.

    Hoards of Americans spit on Joe DiMaggio. He was a very unpopular guy. We treated him almost as bad as we treated Santa Claus. (Santa was very unpopular among bald Scandinavians.)

  11. Reminds of an old sick joke….’NAACP’….Negroes aren’t always colored people.

    1. Arne Rosenstock – I had a black Dean of Students who said he came from a family of 10 kids and they ranged in color from as dark as he (ink) to white.

  12. It is always interesting when you get black folk talking about skin tone. Like ALL groups, they have their issues. The skin tone is very important. The lighter, the better. Light skinned blacks are considered higher class. A dark skinned friend told me a light skinned woman would never date him, and he tried A LOT. You don’t hear talk of this much in the media. However, the great TV show Homicide touched on this. The star, LT. Giardello, played by the great Yaphet Kotto, was rejected by a light skinned woman. He explained this bias to a white female colleague, showing the hurt he felt.

    All ethnicities have their bias that hurts. With the Irish, it’s lace or shanty. With Italians it’s geographical, the north looking down on southern Italians. The great Joe DiMaggio was a Sicilian growing up in SF, a city settled by northern Italians. So, he was looked down upon by non Italians as well as Italians in the North Beach section of SF, an Italian enclave. That is why he made sure he was so dapper, dressing impeccably like he were from Milan, and always well scrubbed. It’s the dark side of human nature. Something that lives in everyone to varying degrees.

    1. Nick – Spike Lee’s 1988 film School Daze (based on his time at Spelman) deals with this. It was his second long film so give him a little slack. I used to show it in my classes as an example of how not to film dance numbers.

  13. This is the type of farce we have when people focus solely on skin color and drops of blood instead of the character and abilities of the individual. I believe that Martin Luther King Jr. had a little something to say about this.

    It is as if we are going back to the racist classification system of quadroon/octaroon etc. Instead of changing from black to white, as was done in the Jim Crow days and before in order to get the benefits and privilege of being white, now people want to change from white to black to get all the perks and preferred treatment.

    I’ve decided that I am actually an illegal Mexican immigrant and plan to get my food stamps, free medical, welfare, rent support or free housing, demand special treatment at the DMV, don’t need to have any stinking insurance and insult everyone I can in Spanish while I’m at the grocery store. Gordo!!!!!. 😀

  14. I had a black friend who lost a job in CA because he wasn’t ‘black enough.’ This was in the Watts area and they were looking for inky blacks to hire. Of course, had he gotten the job there, I wouldn’t have known him.

    The NCAAP is going to have to start doing DNA tests.

  15. There is no requirement for a person to be African American since the NAACP was founded by mostly white folks. So this is basically a non-issue unless she is in a paid staff position which requires such ancestry. One does not expect to become head of NOW if one is male, but men are welcome to join as well.

    I have to admit that I learned too late in life to claim black ancestry when I applied for a job at United Airlines for a pilot position. Had I known that the standard is your own self definition, I would have put down my ethnic background as black and I would have been hired.

  17. We did all come from Africa. Hoot mon, Pip Pip, mien got, scare bleu, I’m Black and I’m beautiful.

  18. If Dolezal meets the American Indian blood % requirements, then she could get a tribal owned casino going. Place your bets.

  19. Elizabeth Warren’s “running mate”.
    The sentence beginning with “Worse yet..” needs grammar correction.
    Maybe she is claiming simply to be a “colored” person. That word is still in the name of the NAACP.
    All things being German, perhaps she has a Nazi past.

  20. Check Bruce Jenner’s chromosomes and Rachel Dolezal’s DNA and you’ll find a dude and a white chick, both with a serious mental disorder.

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