# Local NAACP Leader Fabricates Black Ethnicity **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 12, 2015, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357 "2015-06-12T13:35:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/161 "2015-06-15T21:44:26Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I don’t think her self-identity is really other people’s business … but the lies that she used to secure public attention because of it certainly are. For example, lying about being abused by her parents, or being the victim of hate crimes. Well, other people’s self-identity was apparently her business: > **[Rachel Dolezal Once Told A Student She Did Not Look Hispanic Enough For A...](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tamerragriffin/rachel-dolezal-once-told-a-student-she-did-not-look-hispanic)** > > Former students from Eastern Washington and Howard Universities told BuzzFeed News about their classroom encounters with Rachel Dolezal, who taught courses in Africana studies and studio art. …Dolezal sought out a volunteer of Hispanic background to be questioned. The student, who told BuzzFeed News that she identifies as Hispanic, grew up in a Spanish-speaking country, speaks the language fluently, and, while she has light skin, believes she has a “pretty solid experience of what it’s like to be Spanish.” She raised her hand to participate. “I think we should ask another student,” the student recalled Dolezal saying in class. The student asked why she could not participate. “Rachel said I didn’t look Hispanic,” she said, and that her instructor “doubted that I could share experiences of racial or ethnic discrimination because I didn’t have the appearance of looking Hispanic.” ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/162 "2015-06-15T21:50:33Z")
> [@Omega\_Glory](#): > > Her husband was probably aware that black people do tan (naturally) and aren’t one solid complexion all over. I recognize tan marks too. My wife has them every summer from her one piece bathing suit. I get the rather unflattering[farmers tan.](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/72/5c/9c/725c9c9ec2893eff6a0903b8904d148e.jpg) Because I hike a lot and also do yard work. A white lady pretending to be black wouldn’t fool me. Theres too much obvious difference in a tan and a naturally dark complexion. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/163 "2015-06-15T21:52:02Z")
What husband are you talking about? She seems to have begun this identity shift after she got divorced. In her wedding pictures she’s whiter than white. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/164 "2015-06-15T22:03:08Z")
Shes standing right next to a black guy in the photos. Isn’t that her SO? There’s pics of her with her black kids. She’s told so many lies its impossible to know whats true. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/165 "2015-06-15T22:04:49Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I recognize tan marks too. My wife has them every summer from her one piece bathing suit. I get the rather unflattering[farmers tan.](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/72/5c/9c/725c9c9ec2893eff6a0903b8904d148e.jpg) Because I hike a lot and also do yard work. > > A white lady pretending to be black wouldn’t fool me. Theres too much obvious difference in a tan and a naturally dark complexion. There are numerous people who could call themselves black, due to ancestry, who are assumed to be tanned white people. Seeing a woman with a darker face and a pale body is not solid proof that they’re a white person pretending to be black. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/166 "2015-06-15T22:21:38Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Shes standing right next to a black guy in the photos. Isn’t that her SO? There’s pics of her with her black kids. Her “black kids” are her adopted brothers. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/167 "2015-06-15T22:33:08Z")
[Snopes](http://m.snopes.com/2015/06/12/rachel-dolezal/) > [@aceplace57](#): > > Shes standing right next to a black guy in the photos. Isn’t that her SO? I’m not sure what photos you’re referring to. There are photos of me standing next to black guys too, but none that I was ever married to. In Dolezal’s case, she was married to a black guy at one point. Then she got divorced. As noted above, she began being black after she got divorced. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/168 "2015-06-15T22:36:17Z")
ok. \ I haven’t tried sorting out her lies from the truth. Its not worth the bother when someones entire life is an elaborate fabrication. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/169 "2015-06-15T22:36:42Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Her “black kids” are her adopted brothers. She does have at least one black kid, with her ex husband. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/170 "2015-06-15T23:30:39Z")
If this is true, after college she didn’t always say she was black. > **[Fake black activist once sued black school for discrimination](https://torontosun.com/2015/06/15/fake-black-activist-once-sued-black-school-for-discrimination)** > > The woman who resigned from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Monday because she was outed as white once sued a school for… ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/171 "2015-06-16T00:13:26Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > Stranger and stranger … > > Apparently, back when she was still white, this same person (unsuccessfully) [sued Howard University for discriminating against her for being white](http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/bizarre/rachel-dolezal-discrimination-lawsuit-786451). > > I guess she figured if you can’t fight 'em join 'em. > > According to [her brother](http://www.salon.com/2015/06/14/rachel_dolezals_adopted_brother_shes_been_living_in_blackface/): [Her dials go to 11!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOO5S4vxi0o) ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/172 "2015-06-16T01:09:19Z")
**Starving Artist** This post is a thinly veiled example of the transgender comparasions that everyone was instructed to stop doing. You’ve earned a warning for not following mod instructions. > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > For probably the first time ever I am in complete agreement with you. > > Rachel Dolezal has been drawn to and has enmeshed herself in black culture for the last twenty years or so. She attended a primarily black college and almost all of her college artwork (which is quite good, btw) depicts black subjects. She married a black guy and she gained legal custody of her younger black stepbrother. She moved to another state in order to establish her life as a black person, and I’m sure she never imagined her fictitious stories about her parents would somehow reflect on her real white parents back in Montana. And as for the apparent false hate mail she received, meh. As I’ve said before, Al Sharpton has done worse by orders of magnitude and it’s never so much as caused a blip in his career as a black leader. > > I am frankly gobsmacked by the liberal reaction to her. Yes, it’s true that studies haven’t been made to address the legitimacy of transracialism and that no particular gene has been identified to cause it, but so what? I thought the underlying and most important message when it comes to transgenderism is how a person feels - that they should be able to live in the way they identify with and makes them the happiest and most fulfilled. It’s been my impression that the assertions made in regard to studies and genes and so forth were in support of those feelings rather than as a bright line to to be used to rule other alternate lifestyles. > > So if the defining quality in determining how a person might legitimately live is how they feel and what they identify with internally, I think it’s beyond question that Rachel Dolezal identifies as a black woman and should be allowed to live that way. > > I agree that she likely has mental or emotional issues that have led her down this road, but she’s clearly a very intelligent and accomplished woman, and I’ve felt from the very beginning that if living as a black woman is what fulfills her and makes her happy then that’s what she should be allowed to do. > > I do think that if she’s broken any laws or caused harm to anyone along the way then she should be dealt with according to the law just like anyone else, but while still able to retain her identity as a black woman. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/173 "2015-06-16T11:42:15Z")
She’s on the Today show. I’m sure the interview will be available online shortly. The more she speaks, the harder I roll my eyes. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/174 "2015-06-16T11:51:06Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > As a Professor of African studies trying to use her “black” experience in her classes, she is damaging her students. As a person making false accusations of hate crimes, as a person who tried to use a false ethnicity in order to get special treatment, she is committing fraud. > > That does make it other people’s business. I’m not so sure that she hasn’t had a reasonable facsimile to black experience. She can pass as a light-skinned black and she likely has experienced some of the adversities that black people face in the US. She definitely has some serious mental issues and I doubt anyone was harmed by her to the extent that she has damaged herself. I think she has some long-repressed family issues to resolve and could benefit from therapy. I’m just not getting the outrage directed her way. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/175 "2015-06-16T13:22:54Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I’m just not getting the outrage directed her way. Is this outrageous enough? > **[Rachel Dolezal Once Told A Student She Did Not Look Hispanic Enough For A...](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tamerragriffin/rachel-dolezal-once-told-a-student-she-did-not-look-hispanic)** > > Former students from Eastern Washington and Howard Universities told BuzzFeed News about their classroom encounters with Rachel Dolezal, who taught courses in Africana studies and studio art. …Dolezal sought out a volunteer of Hispanic background to be questioned. The student, who told BuzzFeed News that she identifies as Hispanic, grew up in a Spanish-speaking country, speaks the language fluently, and, while she has light skin, believes she has a “pretty solid experience of what it’s like to be Spanish.” She raised her hand to participate. “I think we should ask another student,” the student recalled Dolezal saying in class. The student asked why she could not participate. “Rachel said I didn’t look Hispanic,” she said, and that her instructor “doubted that I could share experiences of racial or ethnic discrimination because I didn’t have the appearance of looking Hispanic.” ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/176 "2015-06-16T13:36:39Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Is this outrageous enough?[/INDENT] Was the student permanently traumatized? I doubt it. I’ll grant you she may be a first-class bitch and this was a perfectly assholish move on her part, but the adverse effect on the insufficiently Hispanic student was minimal at best. So one person decides to change her race and gets busted. Big fucking deal. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/177 "2015-06-16T13:43:09Z")
Who cares if she was permanently traumatized? That’s a ridiculous thing for a professor to do (and would remain so whether she was _actually_ black, or Hispanic, or of any other race or ethnicity.) ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/178 "2015-06-16T13:48:11Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Who cares if she was permanently traumatized? That’s a ridiculous thing for a professor to do (and would remain so whether she was _actually_ black, or Hispanic, or of any other race or ethnicity.) I’ll grant you it was a preposterous thing to do and she should have been disciplined if not fired from the school for doing so. And it’s perfectly ironic that a fake black lady singles out an Hispanic student for not looking sufficiently Hispanic. I get that. But I can’t see world-class outrage over it. Shitty thing to do, yes. On a level with sexual advances toward a student, no. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/179 "2015-06-16T13:52:26Z")
I’m not seeing any “world-class outrage”. Can you point us to some? All I’ve seen is world-class confusion, amusement, and possibly condescension. ---
**Author:** ![piepiepie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@piepiepie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/piepiepie)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357/180 "2015-06-16T14:59:49Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I’m not so sure that she hasn’t had a reasonable facsimile to black experience. She can pass as a light-skinned black and she likely has experienced some of the adversities that black people face in the US. This is a laughably bad post. You know, at the end of the day, she still has the luxury of being white. If she was ever on the receiving end of “the adversities” we face as black people, she could still go home, wipe off her bronzer, and just be white. We don’t get to do that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-naacp-leader-fabricates-black-ethnicity/722357.md?page=10)