The Spokane, Washington woman who has caused a firestorm of conversation about the ideas of “transracial” and “Wrong skin” identities resigned Monday from her post as the city’s NAACP president.
Rachel Dolezal said in a statement on the organization’s Facebook page that she will never stop fighting for justice, and that she “will never stop fighting for human rights and will do everything in my power to help and assist, whether it means stepping up or stepping down.”
After the woman, who has purported to be Black in the Spokane community, was outed by her parents last week as being a White woman, it led to a controversy about racial identity and the idea of “passing” as another race. In her facebook resignation note, Dolezal herself said “challenging the construct of race is at the core of evolving human consciousness” and expressed her dismay that “the dialogue has unexpectedly shifted internationally to my personal identity in the context of defining race and ethnicity.”
But her mother Ruthanne said Dolezal did not address her dishonesty at all.
“I don’t see any honest way that a person can describe themselves as transracial because your ethnicity comes from your genetic code and what’s handed down to you by your parents, your real biological parents,” Ruthanne told MSNBC. “And I think the healthy path to take on this kind of discussion is to find a way to embrace and celebrate who you are — or who you really are.”
The Smoking Gun reported Monday that Dolezal sued Howard University when she was enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts program there in 2002, alleging the institution discriminated against her. She claimed she was denied scholarships, teaching positions and financial aid because she was White.
Dolezal had been teaching as an adjunct instructor of Africana Studies at Eastern Washington University since 2010, though a spokesman said Monday she is no longer employed by the university and he is unsure that her contract will be picked up for the next quarter.
