Rachel Discrimination

On the Today show, former Spokane NAACP head Rachel Dolezal explained how despite having two white parents, she identifies herself as an African American. She also mentioned her child’s observation: “Mom, racially you’re human. Culturally, you’re black.” And according to her colleagues and fellow activists, Dolezal has a stellar record, professionally speaking. So why did she even bother to step down? Could it have something to do with those few minor embellishments? For instance, as mentioned in the Washington Post—in a lede buried in the 23rd paragraph:

In interviews, those who knew Dolezal painted her as a gifted artist and hairdresser with a flair for self-invention. No one could explain what inspired her to lie outright about her race. But with each passing year, they said, her biography seemed to grow more twisted. In 2013, she told the Eastern Washington University student newspaper that she was born in a teepee, hunted food with a bow and was beaten by her parents with a “baboon whip.”

Not to mention the Smoking Gun‘s finding that Dolezal “once sued Howard University for denying her teaching posts and a scholarship because she was a white woman.”