The head of the Spokane, Washington NAACP is in the hot seat after allegations that she has been misrepresenting her racial identity in her professional life.
The City of Spokane is planning to investigate Rachel Dolezal, who is an adjunct professor at Eastern Washington University in addition to heading up the local NAACP chapter, on charges that she violated the city’s ethics code when she applied to be part of the citizen police ombudsman commission, on which she now serves.
Dolezal, whose parents say they are of European descent and identify their (estranged) daughter as Caucasian, said in an interview with Reuters that she identifies herself as black. When confronted about her racial identity by KXLY4 reporter Jeff Humphrey, she said she didn’t understand the question, then walked off camera and ended the interview.
Parents say NAACP leader is "pretending"; she grew up blonde, blue-eyed and freckled-face http://t.co/cAcLGALTAB pic.twitter.com/ZQWEsopjKd
— CBS News (@CBSNews)
Parents say NAACP leader is "pretending"; she grew up blonde, blue-eyed and freckled-face http://t.co/cAcLGALTAB pic.twitter.com/ZQWEsopjKd
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 12, 2015
Dolezal attended Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, D.C., on a full scholarship, and her father says the university simply took her for a black woman because she applied to study art with a portfolio of “exclusively African American portraiture.”
Does racial identity matter as much to younger generations? What do you see as the case with Rachel Dolezal? Is this a misunderstanding or is this a case of Dolezal being disingenuous?
Guest:
Ann Morning, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology at New York University. Her research focuses on racial self-identification and official classification of multiracial individuals.