Among those rallying to support Spokane, Washington NAACP President Rachel Dolezal is self-proclaimed “civil rights activist” Al Sharpton, who had some harsh and incendiary words for Dolezal’s parents.
Despite being born white to two Caucasian parents, Dolezal has portrayed herself as a black woman for the past decade, apparently going to extensive lengths to alter her physical appearance. In addition to her position at the NAACP, she is also a part-time professor of Africana Studies at Eastern Washington University.
When questions arose about Dolezal’s racial identity, her parents were quick to set the record straight. "Rachel has wanted to be somebody she's not. She's chosen not to just be herself but to represent herself as an African American woman or a biracial person. And that's simply not true," her mother, Ruthanne Dolezal, told a local TV station.
Yet in Sharpton’s view this honesty may have an ulterior motive—to distract from their daughter’s important work on behalf of racial justice.
As reported by Mediaite.com, when gossip site TMZ.com questioned Sharpton about Dolezal he echoed the NAACP’s official statement that “One’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership." Sharpton said:
I think the question they want to deal with is her honesty. You have to be transparent. But it’s not about whether she’s white or black. It’s about, are you going to be honest. And I think that’s the only question. But her race, is really irrelevant… If you’re fighting for the rights of people, then don’t deny the person you are, is the only issue. But for her being white there, means absolutely nothing.”
Asked about Dolezal’s parents, Sharpton doesn’t mince words:
You’ve got to ask yourself, why would your mother and father after all this time come out, and what is that all about?
He added:
On one level, you’ve got to say to her, ‘Were you misleading us’, but on another level, mom and dad, come on. Are you really going to do this to your kid. Are we gonna have this kind of dysfunctional family stuff play out and distract us from real key civil rights causes? Come on dad, come on mom, be the adults here. And you’ve got to ask the question, what is mom and dad’s motive here. I mean y’all just noticed she was in the NAACP? Where you been, mom and dad?