It doesn't matter if you're black or white

[Highway]

I don't know if they'll walk it back, or do something quietly to move her out of the position, but I have to say that I like the NAACP's regional response to this controversy about whether their Washington Branch President is black or not.

NAACP Spokane Washington Branch President Rachel Dolezal is enduring a legal issue with her family, and we respect her privacy in this matter. One’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership. The NAACP Alaska-Oregon-Washington State Conference stands behind Ms. Dolezal’s advocacy record... [W]e encourage Americans of all stripes to become members and serve as leaders in our organization.

[thoreau]

From what I have read about the woman, the problem is not that she is white but that she is a pathological liar.

[tr0g]

From what I have read about the woman, the problem is not that she is white but that she is a pathological liar.

Is it pathological if you think you're lying for the greater good?

[Highway]

I don't know enough about the situation or the people involved. I just liked the message they put out.

[Dangerman]

I don't know enough about the situation or the people involved. I just liked the message they put out.

I think that's the proper organizational response to almost any social-media-politics kerfuffle: Sorry, not our business as long as they get the job done. And if you agree, come work for us!

[JD]

I think the NAACP's response was good - after all, they have never demanded, nor should they, that all their members be Black. They should, however, be concerned that this member is mendacious at best and mentally disturbed at worst.

[thoreau]

If the details in this article are accurate, then she is quite disturbed, filing false police reports about alleged hate crimes committed against her.

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-new ... aacp-head/

[dbcooper]

Pretty disappointed that she didn't attend MIT nor work as a secret Navy Seal military contractor for the CIA.

[thoreau]

Pretty disappointed that she didn't attend MIT nor work as a secret Navy Seal military contractor for the CIA.

Supposedly she got an MA from Howard:

http://www.ewu.edu/csbssw/programs/afri ... el-dolezal

[dbcooper]

That's not even a top 100 school! Terrible con woman.

When she kills herself, who will blame grantlant for revealing her real name?

[Aresen]

IMHO, membership in the NAACP should be open to all but albinos if the name is any guide.

[D.A. Ridgely]

That's not even a top 100 school! Terrible con woman.

When she kills herself, who will blame grantlant for revealing her real name?

It's a more prestigious school in the opinion of many African Americans. It's their Harvard and even if many other schools are better endowed and have more generally prestigious faculty and more difficult admissions policies, etc. being a Howard grad confers entry to the African American upper class without the lingering suspicions that you've sold out.

[the innominate one]

I know some white, sorry, European Americans, sorry, oppressor Americans, who attended Howard on minority scholarships and who were rewarded with interviews for professorships under the assumption that most Howard grads are African Americans.

[lunchstealer]

From what I have read about the woman, the problem is not that she is white but that she is a pathological liar.

Is it pathological if you think you're lying for the greater good?

Crazy is as crazy does, not as crazy intends.

[tr0g]

I know some white, sorry, European Americans, sorry, oppressor Americans, who attended Howard on minority scholarships and who were rewarded with interviews for professorships under the assumption that most Howard grads are African Americans.

I knew a pale sort of person who attended Prairie View A&M. He once joked that everybody on campus knew who he was: the white guy in the engineering program.

[Kolohe]

IMHO, membership in the NAACP should be open to all but albinos if the name is any guide.

Half the founding members of the NAACP were white. In some accounts, it was the white member's initiative, they got WEB DuBois and the others to join in.

[Hugh Akston]

IMHO, membership in the NAACP should be open to all but albinos if the name is any guide.

Half the founding members of the NAACP were white. In some accounts, it was the white member's initiative, they got WEB DuBois and the others to join in.

Also certain types of albinism are much more prevalent in people of sub-Saharan African descent.

[Andrew]

It does help clarify how they were able to find a black person in Spokane.

[dhex]

clark is really entertaining when he aims to be entertaining. far, far less so when he's on the butthurt culture war train.

[dbcooper]

IMHO, membership in the NAACP should be open to all but albinos if the name is any guide.

Half the founding members of the NAACP were white. In some accounts, it was the white member's initiative, they got WEB DuBois and the others to join in.

Bind yourself to the tree of woe for that terrible grammar.

[Jennifer]

All those threats and hate letters she sent to herself are mentioned on her professor's biography page at the college where she teaches Africana studies.

http://sites.ewu.edu/diversity/professo ... l-dolezal/

During her experience as the Director for the Human Rights Education Institute, Doležal developed programs and curriculum that expanded the annual audience from 3,000 per year to 23,000 per year. She created world-class exhibits, coordinated cultural events, scheduled keynote speakers, organized panel discussions and began the Young Advocates for Human Rights summer training program. Her efforts were met with opposition by North Idaho white supremacy groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Neo Nazis and the Aryan Nations, and at least eight documented hate crimes targeted Doležal and her children during her residency in North Idaho.

[D.A. Ridgely]

I guess once you go black, sometimes you do come back.

[Aresen]

All those threats and hate letters she sent to herself are mentioned on her professor's biography page at the college where she teaches Africana studies.

http://sites.ewu.edu/diversity/professo ... l-dolezal/

During her experience as the Director for the Human Rights Education Institute, Doležal developed programs and curriculum that expanded the annual audience from 3,000 per year to 23,000 per year. She created world-class exhibits, coordinated cultural events, scheduled keynote speakers, organized panel discussions and began the Young Advocates for Human Rights summer training program. Her efforts were met with opposition by North Idaho white supremacy groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Neo Nazis and the Aryan Nations, and at least eight documented hate crimes targeted Doležal and her children during her residency in North Idaho.

Even if every one of those hate crimes is true, it does not make her 'better' than others or validate her arguments. I have seen too many people who believe that persecution - whether real, perceived or imagined - validates their beliefs. The real persecution of the Mormons in Illinois before the trek west does not make their religion any more true. The real mockery of Sarah Palin on Salon does not make her less of an idiot.

The question in Dolezal's case was whether she furthered the objectives of the NAACP. By some measures, she did. If she has fibbed and faked, then she has probably done real harm to the organization.

/preaching to the choir

[D.A. Ridgely]

So, the question is whether she should be judged by the content of her character or the color of her skin?

[dbcooper]

This is the worst writing I've come across in years:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/j ... overground