In a controversy that illustrates the pitfalls of identity politics, the family of a prominent civil rights activist who heads the Spokane, Washington chapter of the NAACP is challenging her identification as black. There are also allegations that she may have faked several hate crimes which she reported to police.
That leader, Rachel Dolezal, has been a leading member of the regional civil rights community for many years, serving as education director for the Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, before succeeding to the presidency of the Spokane NAACP. Dolezal was also appointed to the volunteer position of chairman of Spokane’s Office of Police Ombudsman Commission and she serves as a part-time professor of Africana Studies at Eastern Washington University.
The Spokane Spokesman-Review reports that Dolezal’s mother, Ruthanne Dolezal, claims that around 2006 or 2007 her daughter began to “disguise herself.” This change in racial identity apparently coincided with the family’s adoption of four African-American children.
According to the Spokesman-Review:
Ruthanne Dolezal said the family’s ancestry is Czech, Swedish and German. She said the family does have some “faint traces” of Native American heritage as well. She provided a copy of her daughter’s Montana birth certificate listing herself and Larry Dolezal as Rachel’s parents.
Meanwhile, an inquiry is being opened at Spokane City Hall, where Dolezal identified herself in her application to the Office of Police Ombudsman Commission as having several ethnic origins, including white, black and American Indian.
Local TV station KREM-2 News which interviewed Dolezal’s parents reports:
The Dolezals said Rachel married and later divorced a black man. They said after the divorce in 2004 Rachel began identifying differently. She started claiming to be partially African American and the daughter of bi-racial parents. They said they have noticed her change in physical appearance but do not know how she did so.
"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," said Ruthanne Dolezal.
Complicating the controversy of whether she lied about her racial identity is the questionable legitimacy of a number of hate crimes and bias incidents which Dolezal reported to the police over a period of several years.
The Spokane Spokesman-Review explains:
Dolezal has made many reports of harassment and other crimes to police. None have resulted in arrests or charges – but neither have any included direct claims that she fabricated them. In some cases, such as a report that a noose was left on her porch in Spokane, there were other witnesses.
Kurt Neumaier, a former board member of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations which encompasses the Human Rights Education Institute where Dolezal worked for three years told the Spokesman-Review that he had long held suspicions about both her ethnic identity and the hate crimes she reported.
The Spokesman-Review reports:
Neumaier said he was suspicious of several incidents Dolezal reported in Coeur d’Alene, including her discovery of a swastika on the door of the Human Rights Education Institute when the organization’s security camera was “mysteriously turned off.”
“None of them passed the smell test,” he said.
For her part, Dolezal is refusing to clarify matters at present. Contacted by the Spokesman-Review, Dolezal described the issue as “multi-layered” and stated “I feel like I owe my executive committee a conversation” before discussing the controversy with the community at large.
“There’s a lot of complexities … and I don’t know that everyone would understand that,” she added.
