Edit: Watch the last 1 minute of the video for the meat of the story.
The following is the story and video that pertains to the thread title. Rachel Dolezal has been the target of 8 hate crimes in the past two years. Suspicious hate crimes. She is the local NCAAP president. She says she is black, and identified with a picture of a black man as her father. A reporter went to Montana and interviewed her parents. Her birth certificate says she is caucasian, and so does her folks. You be the judge...
Published On: Jun 11 2015 02:39:46 PM PDT Updated On: Jun 11 2015 02:51:59 PM PDT
SPOKANE, Wash. -
The City of Spokane announced Thursday it's investigating whether the president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP violated the city's code of ethics in her application to serve on the citizen police ombudsman commission.
Rachel Dolezal serves as chair of the independent commission, in addition to her work as an adjunct faculty member at Eastern Washington University and president of the NAACP local chapter. On her application to serve on the commission, she identified herself as African-American. But public records, including Dolezal's own birth certificate, list her biological parents as Ruthanne and Lawrence Dolezal of Montana. The Dolezals told KXLY Thursday that Rachel is their biological daughter and that they are both white.
"We are committed to independent citizen oversight and take very seriously the concerns raised regarding the chair of the independent citizen police ombudsman commission," Mayor David Condon and City Council President Ben Stuckart said it a joint statement Thursday. "We are gathering facts to determine if any city policies related to volunteer boards and commissions have been violated. That information will be reviewed by the City Council, which has oversight of city boards and commissions."
On the NAACP Spokane Facebook page, a picture was posted earlier this year showing Dolezal and an African-American man. In the post, he's identified as Dolezal's father. KXLY4's Jeff Humphrey asked Dolezal about that claim Wednesday afternoon.
"Ma'am, I was wondering if your dad really is an African-American man," Humphrey asked.
"I don't understand the question," Dolezal answered. "I did tell you [that man in the picture] is my dad." "Are your parents white?" Humphrey asked. At that point, Dolezal removed the microphone, ended the interview and walked away.
KXLY4 was interviewing Dolezal Wednesday about several hate crimes she's reported over the last several years. Most recently, Dolezal said she received a packet of hateful letters and pictures at the NAACP post office box in North Spokane. That crime led to rallies of support outside Spokane City Hall.
Police are still investigating, but say in reports that whoever placed the mail must have had access to the box, as it was not processed through the regular mail. Dolezal denied any implication that she was responsible.
Dolezal says she's been the victim of eight documented hate crimes in Idaho; a public records request filed by KXLY yielded just three reports. Each was closed by police because of insufficient evidence to prosecute.
[This message has been edited by Tony Kania (edited 06-11-2015).]
If Bruce Jenner can claim to be a woman, This person can claim to be black. Whatever you want or the PC police will be after you. Pick a race or species you want to be and insist everyone has to accept it.
Spokane NAACP president Rachel Dolezal’s claims about background disputed
An inquiry is being opened at Spokane City Hall, where Rachel Dolezal identified herself in job application materials as having several ethnic origins, including white, black and American Indian.
Controversy is swirling around one of the Inland Northwest’s most prominent civil rights activists, with family members of Rachel Dolezal saying the local leader of the NAACP has been falsely portraying herself as black for years.
Dolezal, 37, avoided answering questions directly about her race and ethnicity Thursday, saying, “I feel like I owe my executive committee a conversation” before engaging in a broader discussion with the community about what she described as a “multilayered” issue.
“That question is not as easy as it seems,” she said after being contacted at Eastern Washington University, where she’s a part-time professor in the Africana Studies Program. “There’s a lot of complexities … and I don’t know that everyone would understand that.”
Later, in an apparent reference to the origins of human life in Africa, Dolezal added: “We’re all from the African continent.”
Dolezal is credited with re-energizing the Spokane chapter of the NAACP. She also serves as chairwoman of the city’s Office of Police Ombudsman Commission, where she identified herself as white, black and American Indian in her application for the volunteer appointment, and previously was education director for the Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d’Alene.
In recent days, questions have arisen about her background and her numerous complaints to police of harassment. Members of her family are challenging her very identity, saying she has misrepresented major portions of her life.
Dolezal’s mother, Ruthanne Dolezal, said Thursday by phone from her home in northwestern Montana that she has had no contact with her daughter in years. She said her daughter began to “disguise herself” in 2006 or 2007, after the family had adopted four African-American children and Rachel Dolezal had shown an interest in portrait art.
“It’s very sad that Rachel has not just been herself,” Ruthanne Dolezal said. “Her effectiveness in the causes of the African-American community would have been so much more viable, and she would have been more effective if she had just been honest with everybody.”
Rachel Dolezal dismisses the controversy as little more than an ugly byproduct of contentious litigation between other family members over allegations of past abuse that has divided the family. She’s particularly suspicious of the timing, noting that the allegations broke on her son’s birthday and come as the Colorado lawsuit filed by her sister against their brother nears a key juncture.
Ruthanne Dolezal, however, said that while the family has long been aware of some of their daughter’s racial and ethnic claims in the Inland Northwest, they didn’t comment until being contacted by the media.
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.
“We are gathering facts to determine if any city policies related to volunteer boards and commissions have been violated,” Mayor David Condon and Council President Ben Stuckart said in a joint statement. “That information will be reviewed by the City Council, which has oversight of city boards and commissions.”
Dolezal was appointed to the oversight board by Condon.
Stuckart said the council will meet soon to discuss the developments and that he didn’t want to speak for the group until then. “But if this is true I’ll be very disappointed,” he said Thursday morning.
Eastern Washington University, where Dolezal was described by President Mary Cullinan in March as “an inspiring role model for EWU students,” moved to distance itself from the controversy Thursday.
“At this time, it’s not appropriate for us to comment on a personnel issue,” university spokesman Dave Meany said.
Some colleagues question her representations
Some people at organizations Dolezal is or has been associated with say they’ve had questions about her representations about herself for some time. A private investigator in Kootenai County has been looking into her background recently. It’s unclear who hired the investigator.
James Wilburn, past president of the Spokane NAACP who was replaced by Dolezal after she ran against him for the presidency, said Thursday that discussions about her background were relegated to a few members of that group before her election late last year.
“It was discussed among close members to me, and we kept it like that,” Wilburn said.
A former board member of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations said he recently approached other board members, urging them to come forward with concerns about Dolezal’s truthfulness. That assertion, however, is disputed by two current board members.
The Human Rights Education Institute, which employed Dolezal for three years, is the education arm of the task force.
Kurt Neumaier has served as an alternate board member or former full member of the task force since 2001. He said he had suspicions about alleged hate crimes that Dolezal has reported to police in Coeur d’Alene and Spokane, and said he was concerned that the decision of the task force and Human Rights Education Institute to hire her was done without proper vetting and checking into claims about her background. Neumaier said he approached board members recently, urging them to go public with these concerns because of Dolezal’s growing profile in Spokane, but board members didn’t want to.
Tony Stewart, a co-founder of the task force and longtime civil rights champion in Coeur d’Alene, said Thursday he does not recall discussing Dolezal at any recent board meeting. Christie Wood, the current head of the task force and spokeswoman for the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, also denied that Neumaier approached the board recently and said in any case, the task force board doesn’t oversee the education institute where Dolezal worked.
“Certainly when things like this happen it’s sad, but what I really deeply believe, and I think history has borne this out, human rights and civil rights is far, far stronger than any one personality or even one organization,” Stewart said.
Investigation into hate mail not conclusive
Also this week, Spokane police files on Dolezal’s report that she received a hate mail package and other mailing in late February and March were released. Police records say the initial package Dolezal reported receiving did not bear a date stamp or bar code, which Dolezal told police when she reported it. Investigators interviewed postal workers, who said it was either very unlikely or impossible that the package could have been processed through the post office, implying that the only alternative was that it had been put there by someone with a key.
Several other pieces of mail sent in the same handwriting and style, and with the writer identifying himself in the same way as “War Pig (Ret.),” have been received by Dolezal, the Spokane Valley Police Department and The Spokesman-Review. Those other letters were date-stamped and postmarked from Oakland, California.
It was not clear from the reports, released through a public records request Wednesday, if the police investigation into the letter had concluded or was ongoing. Dolezal said Wednesday she believes it has reached an end, at least for the time being.
“They’re not going any further. … I didn’t hear the word closed, but I did hear there’s nothing more they can do at this time,” she said.
Dolezal said she received a key to the post office box when she became president of the NAACP earlier this year. Asked about the possibility that she had put the package there herself, she said, “That’s such bullshit. What mother would terrorize her own children?”
She said she was not questioned about that possibility by police and was bothered by initial media reports about the package. “Nobody’s ever come out and said (they suspect me) directly, but I am bothered by the subtle implication,” she said.
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.
He said that after Dolezal left the institute and he saw her gaining prominence in Spokane – becoming head of the NAACP, chairman of the police ombudsman oversight commission, teaching at Eastern Washington University and speaking frequently in public on racism and justice issues – he became worried that there might be “blowback” for the institute for not doing a better job of vetting her.
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.
Ezra Dolezal, Rachel Dolezal’s adoptive brother, said Thursday his sister began to change when she attended Howard University, a historically black school. He also said Dolezal asked him not to “blow my cover” in 2012 when he was visiting her.
He also disputes claims she’s made in the past that her family was abusive.
Ruthanne Dolezal said her message to her daughter is simple.
“I would say, ‘I love you, and honesty is the best policy,’ ” she said. “I firmly believe that the truth is in everyone’s best interest.”
.
Staff writer Kip Hill can be reached at kiph@spokesman.com or (509) 459-5429. Staff editor David Wasson can be reached at davidw@spokesman.com or (509) 459-5148. Staff writers Shawn Vestal and Eli Francovich contributed to this report.
If she's a liar that should disqualify her. In my opinion.
If that were the case, all politicians and activists would be disqualified. Nobody cares about that. Dishonesty only matters when there's another reason to hate someone that isn't socially acceptable.
If that were the case, all politicians and activists would be disqualified. Nobody cares about that. Dishonesty only matters when there's another reason to hate someone that isn't socially acceptable.
I have absolutely NO USE for the NAACP. I wrote them off back in the 90's when I was forced to attend one of their banquets by my employer in banking. The guest speaker was a black "professor", he went on a rant claiming that black people still had no more rights than they did in the 1800's and that their was still as much discrimination as ever. Keep in mind that he was giving his speech back when black hiring "quotas" were in full force.
Her "sons" are actually her brothers. Her parents had her, and adopted two black children, and one Hatian child it is reported.
You watch children, Self Perceived Race will be a new standard.
Here is her blanket statement. Typical. (Typical in the lawyer legal speak sense.)
************************************************************** Rachel Dolezal releases statement to NAACP members
Posted: Jun 12, 2015 11:34 PM PDT
Updated: Jun 13, 2015 9:52 AM PDT by Matt Pusatory, KHQ Local News Web Producer
SPOKANE, Wash. - Embattled Spokane NAACP President Rachel Dolezal has been fairly quiet since questions of her ethnicity ignited a global conversation. Dolezal is expected to make an official statement Monday, but she sent a message to members of Spokane's NAACP on Friday. You can read that statement in full below.
Dear Members,
As you probably know by now, there are questions and assumptions swirling in national and global news about my family, my race, my credibility, and the NAACP. I have discussed the situation, including personal matters, with the Executive Committee. I support their decision to wait until Monday to make a statement. the Executive team asked that I also release my response statement at the same time, which will be during the 7-9pm monthly membership meeting.
The national and regional NAACP have recommended this same strategy. I ask that all members of the NAACP respect this process as well. there are many layers to this situation. The Executive Committee would like to open up to paid members the opportunity to have questions submitted by email. The Executive Committee would vet and then choose which questions to address after my personal statement. My sons and I would appreciate your thoughts, prayers and support during the interlude. I will see you Monday!
In my useless opinion, here's what this will do. This will intensify the tensions between blacks and whites because if whitey can infiltrate and fool the NAACP by pretending to be black, whitey basically slapped the faces of black people all around the nation. Just remember what Ted Danson did back in the day.
Other than that, the way she talks and looks, she is trying to be a California Valley Girl from the 80's.
[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 06-13-2015).]
This is the best thing that's ever happened, oh the hypocrisy. How can we tell her she isn't brave or black if we can't tell Bruce Jenner he isn't brave or a woman..... ......How will they claim they aren't racist after removing her for being white. Legally, if she has committed fraud on a job app our other documents, they can fire her but it can be argued it is discrimination to use that information in the hiring process.
Rachel Dolezal's Adopted Brother Claims She Told Him Not to 'Blow Her Cover'
By Adam Carlson @acarlson91 06/13/2015 AT 10:20 AM EDT
In a new interview, one of Rachel Dolezal's adopted siblings calls her apparently years-long disguise as biracial "basically blackface" and said she asked him years earlier not to "blow her cover."
"She just told me, 'Over here, I'm going to be considered black, and I have a black father. Don't blow my cover,' " Ezra Dolezal, who is of African-American descent, told BuzzFeed.
Rachel's parents first outed her to local media in Spokane, Washington, where she is the head of the local NAACP; and they have said she has no trace of African American ethnicity.
Ezra offered this theory for Rachel's alleged deception: He claims she said she was mistreated as one of the few white students at Howard University, a historically black college, where she graduated in 2002.
"She used to tell us that teachers treated her differently than other people and a lot of them acted like they didn’t want her there," Ezra told Buzzfeed. "Because of her work in African-American art, they thought she was a black student during her application, but they ended up with a white person."
Ezra also commented on other parts of Rachel's supposedly invented biography. He said she's "never been to Africa in her entire life," after she claimed she lived in South Africa. He also said that while their parents were strict and used corporal punishment, she wasn't abused by her parents, which she had previously claimed.
"She was treated really well as a child," Ezra said, adding, "I think I would know if I was abused growing up, and I definitely wasn't."
He also said that he didn't believe that she had been the subject of race-based attacks, which she had previously claimed to police.
"She made herself into a martyr on purpose for people to feel sorry for her and to help her," Ezra said.
"It's like what psychologists call self-hating," he continued. "She had no reason not to like herself being white. She was an awesome artist and she could have accomplished everything she did, if she had stayed exactly the same."
Ezra acknowledged that he and Rachel are estranged and she has drifted away from her parents.
"I would talk to her all the time before all this fell apart and she became angry towards everybody," he said
Rachel gained custody of one of her younger brothers in 2010, according to Buzzfeed, and now claims him as her birth son.
In comments to the Spokane Spokesman-Review, who broke the story, Rachel dismissed the controversy as the result of litigation between the family over allegations of past abuse.
In that same story, Rachel's mother Ruthanne said she had had no contact with her daughter in several years. "I would caution you on all of this," Rachel told the Coeur d'Alene Press. "This is ridiculous."
"Really it’s [dad] Larry and Ruthanne that are questioning. What I’d say to them is, 'I don't give two s---- what you guys think.' You know?" Rachel told local station KREM. "Like, you’re so far done and out of my life."
Answering a subsequent question in that interview – "Would you identify yourself as an African American?" – she said:
"I actually don't like the term 'African American.' I prefer 'black.' And I would say that, if I was asked, I would definitely say yes, I do consider myself to be black."
One close relative from Dolezal's Montana-based family tells PEOPLE Rachel hasn't been much in touch with her blood relations in Montana since she left for college and, despite this family feud spilling over into the national media, the Dolezals can heal as a family – if Rachel and her parents communicate and Rachel resolves unspecified personal issues.
"I''m sure I would welcome her back," the relative said. "In forgiveness there has to be coming together – you can forgive and that's your responsibility. Theirs is to work out their own problems."
Ezra told Buzzfeed he felt that Rachel's alleged deception was a "slap in the face" to African Americans and their struggles.
"She puts dark makeup on her face and says she black," he said. "It's basically blackface," he said.
Ezra told Buzzfeed he felt that Rachel's alleged deception was a "slap in the face" to African Americans and their struggles.
"She puts dark makeup on her face and says she black," he said. "It's basically blackface," he said.
My God, I should be in the media
quote
Originally posted by IMSA GT: In my useless opinion, here's what this will do. This will intensify the tensions between blacks and whites because if whitey can infiltrate and fool the NAACP by pretending to be black, whitey basically slapped the faces of black people all around the nation. Just remember what Ted Danson did back in the day.
To me this misrepresentation is epic. The youtube replies are increasing, and they rock my face off. Too much to post, but black people be like, "damn!".
Edit: Definition added. The police have a long history of lying in Spokane. An ombudsman is supposed to have the utmost of integrity.
ombudsman
n. noun
1. A person who investigates complaints and mediates fair settlements, especially between aggrieved parties such as consumers or students and an institution or organization.
2. A government official, especially in Scandinavian countries, who investigates citizens' complaints against the government or its functionaries. **************************************************************
June 14, 2015 in City
Spokane officials investigating Rachel Dolezal’s behavior on ombudsman panel Nina Culver The Spokesman-Review
Spokane’s embattled NAACP president faces a challenge on a new front.
A source close to Spokane City Hall said city officials have opened an investigation regarding Rachel Dolezal’s behavior as an Office of Police Ombudsman commissioner. The source declined to be named because the case still is open, but said the inquiry is not related to her claims about her race.
Police ombudsman commissioner Kevin Berkompas said he became aware of an investigation into Dolezal about a month ago but cannot discuss it.
“There is an open investigation,” he said. “I have not seen the investigation or the complaint. They have not told us who it was from.”
The examination of Dolezal’s work as an ombudsman commissioner makes two investigations open at City Hall related to Dolezal. Last week, Mayor David Condon and City Council President Ben Stuckart announced that the city would investigate whether Dolezal lied on her application to become an ombudsman commissioner. She checked multiple boxes on a form inquiring her race, including white and black. Last week, however, her parents said she is white and has been lying about her race.
Dolezal was appointed to the commission when it was formed last summer as part of an effort to boost oversight of the city’s Police Department. She was elected the president of the Spokane branch of the NAACP in November.
Attempts to reach her Saturday afternoon were unsuccessful. But late Friday, she sent out a statement promising to address the controversy swirling around her on Monday.
Both she and the NAACP executive committee will make statements during the NAACP meeting scheduled for Monday evening, Dolezal wrote in an email.
“I have discussed the situation, including personal matters, with the Executive Committee,” she said. “I support their decision to wait until Monday to make a statement.”
On Friday, an online petition calling for Dolezal to resign her position in the NAACP was posted on moveon.org by Kitara McClure, the former multicultural director at Spokane Community College and a member of the NAACP.
McClure argues that the issue that Dolezal needs to address is not race, it’s integrity.
“The basis for what’s really wrong with this entire situation has been lost in race,” she said. “Race is not the issue. You cannot lead without honesty.”
Dolezal did not just tell a single lie about her race, McClure said.
“It’s a web of half-truths and make believe,” she said. “For the local and the national NAACP to say they stand behind her is appalling.”
McClure said she worries that people will pull away from the NAACP and hamper the work being done if Dolezal remains as president.
A mistake must be acknowledged and apologized for before anyone can move forward, McClure said.
“I believe the community wants to forgive her, but first she has to come clean,” she said. “People just want the truth.”
McClure said that after she posted the online petition Friday she received a text from Dolezal that said, in part, “Please don’t contribute to the drama.”
She also received a text uninviting her to Monday’s NAACP meeting just before 1:30 a.m. Saturday, McClure said.
The Rev. Happy Watkins, a former president of the Spokane NAACP and co-founder of Spokane’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, said he has no problem with Dolezal remaining the head of the local NAACP chapter.
“She became president because she ran against James Wilburn and won,” he said, referring to the branch’s former president who was defeated in an election last year. “She didn’t run on a black issue or a white issue.”
Watkins said he has not spoken to Dolezal since last Sunday and doesn’t know why she has been saying she is black.
“I think she’s going to clear it up on Monday, the reason why she declared she was African American,” he said. “We don’t know what the story is.”
Staff editor Jonathan Brunt contributed to this report.
[This message has been edited by Tony Kania (edited 06-14-2015).]
If the NAACP comes to her defense and lets her claim of being black stand.....does that also mean a white person can claim to be black on college/work applications to use that affirmative action crap?
You be the judge...
That will sit over well here. That chair she is sitting in will be vacant shortly. Buh bye.
Her parents had her, and adopted two black children, and one Hatian child it is reported. 
(Typical in the lawyer legal speak sense.)
