Undeterred by criticism after being thrust into the public eye, Rachel Dolezal has once again surfaced into the spotlight. You may remember her from June of 2015 when Dolezal made headlines for lying about her ethnicity to become the head of her local NAACP chapter. Dolezal is a Caucasian woman living in Spokane, Washington but originally born in Lincoln County, Montana to Ruthanne and Lawrence Dolezal. Both of her parents are Caucasians born in America. One might wonder how Dolezal managed to become head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored people?
During her time at the NAACP, she claimed to identify as 'black' and absorbed herself in African culture even adopting their hairstyle, marrying an African American and using tanning methods to darken her skin. In June 2015, her parents came forward and publicly stated that Dolezal is white and trying to pass herself off as black. Shortly before this announcement, Dolezal had been the apparent victim of nine hate crimes involving alleged threats to her safety mostly in the form of letters. Following an investigation, the detectives consulted with the post master who concluded that the lack of postage stamp or any other postal markings meant that only someone with a key could have placed it in her P.O. box.
When the story about the 'woman pretending to be black' went viral in just a matter of days, Dolezal was forced to resign from her position as head of the NAACP and also dismissed from her ombudsman commission by the city council. Now Rachel Dolezal is back in headlines after changing her name to "Nkechi" a West African title. She says she has identified as black since a young child saying "And I know that my identity is still, for many, is somewhat unorthodox or perhaps unique but you know I'm kind of becoming OK with, to a certain extent, a level of support and rejection that's kind of been going on for the last couple of years since my biological heritage and how I was born, was brought to the surface." She calls herself 'Trans-black' and has continued to identify as black since being outed as a white person.
Sources:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/rachel-dolezal-causes-outrage-claiming-10119295
