If parents are Caucasians, what does that make you?
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: The City of Spokane announced 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, reported KXLY Thursday.
Rachel Dolezal, 37, is the head of the local chapter of the NAACP and has identified herself as at least partly African-American. But her Montana birth certificate says she was born to two Caucasian parents, according to that couple, which shared that document and old photos with CNN.
“We are her birth parents,” Lawrence Dolezal told CNN on Friday. “We do not understand why she feels it’s necessary to misrepresent her ethnicity.”
Rachel Dolezal serves as chair of the independent commission and is an adjunct faculty member at Eastern Washington University in addition to being the president of the local NAACP local chapter.
“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.”
KXLY4 asked Dolezal about a photo of her and an African-American man posted to the NAACP Spokane Facebook page earlier this year, in which the caption for which labels the man as her father.
“Ma’am, I was wondering if your dad really is an African-American man,” asked the reporter.
“I don’t understand the question,” Dolezal answered. “I did tell you [that man in the picture] is my dad.”
When the news station’s representative followed up with the question, “Are your parents white,” Dolezal removed the microphone, abruptly ending the interview, and walked away.