Rachel Dolezal

About Rachel Dolezal

Nkechi Amare Diallo (born Rachel Anne Dolezal) is an American activist, fraudster, and former college instructor known for presenting herself as a black woman despite being white. In addition to claiming black ancestry, she also claimed Native American descent. She is also a former National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter president.

Dolezal was president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington, from 2014 until June 2015, when she resigned in the midst of controversy over her racial identity. She was the subject of public scrutiny when her parents publicly stated that she was pretending to be black but was actually white. The statement by Dolezal's parents followed Dolezal's reports to police and local news media that she had been the victim of race-related hate crimes; a police investigation did not find support for her allegations. Dolezal had also claimed on an application form to be mixed-race and had falsely claimed that an African-American man was her father and that her brother was her son. In the aftermath of the controversy, Dolezal was dismissed from her position as an instructor in Africana studies at Eastern Washington University and was removed from her post as chair of the Police Ombudsman Commission in Spokane over "a pattern of misconduct". In 2015, Dolezal acknowledged that she was "born white to white parents," but maintained that she self-identified as black.

The Dolezal controversy fuelled a national debate in the United States about racial identity. Dolezal's critics stated that she committed cultural appropriation and fraud; Dolezal asserted that her self-identification is genuine. In 2017, Dolezal released a memoir on her racial identity entitled In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World.