Rachel Dolezal parents say ‘black’ rights leader is white

Rachel Dolezal, who is president of the Spokane branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Washington state and a part-time professor of Africana studies, has been accused by her mother and father of misleading people. They said she was white, not African-American.

Her father Larry told Buzzfeed: “She’s our birth daughter and we’re both of European descent. We’re puzzled and it’s very sad.”

Speaking to the Spokesman-Review, her mother Ruthanne said: “It’s very sad that Rachel has not just been herself. Her effectiveness in the causes of the African-American community would have been so much more viable, and she would have been more effective if she had just been honest with everybody.”

She said her daughter began to “disguise herself” in 2006 or 2007. Mrs Dolezal produced photographs showing what her daughter looked like when she was a girl, her blonde hair at odds with the tight curls she has today. She said that while the family had “faint traces” of native American blood, its background was Czech, Swedish and German.

Rachel Dolezal, 37, was confronted with the allegations by a television reporter from KXLY, who showed her a photograph and asked if it was her father. She confirmed it was and he asked if he was African-American.

She said: “I don’t know what you’re implying” and was asked if she was African-American. “I don’t understand the question. I did tell you that that’s my dad,” she answered.

She then walked off, with the reporter asking: “Your parents, are they white?”