Uncovered: Rachel Dolezal sued Howard U for discrimination
Might want to tuck away that race card
I officially need a flowchart to handle the strange and offensive racial evolution of Rachel Dolezal.
Last week, the internet exploded with stories about Rachel, a white woman who has spent the majority of her career “identifying” as an African-American woman. While I still haven’t figured out how one can with a straight face “identify” as someone of another race, especially in the historical context of slavery and discrimination, I think it’s pretty clear that Dolezal’s actions have activists on both sides of the aisle crying foul.
Today, The Smoking Gun revealed that she has a history of playing both sides of the race card. Back in 2002, Dolezal (then Rachel Moore) sued Howard University on the basis of racial discrimination after she claimed she was discriminated against—as a white woman:
Dolezal, then known as Rachel Moore, named the university and Professor Alfred Smith as defendants in a lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C.’s Superior Court. During the pendency of the civil case, Smith was chairman of Howard’s Department of Art.
According to a Court of Appeals opinion, Dolezal’s lawsuit “claimed discrimination based on race, pregnancy, family responsibilities and gender.” She alleged that Smith and other school officials improperly blocked her appointment to a teaching assistant post, rejected her application for a post-graduate instructorship, and denied her scholarship aid while she was a student.
The court opinion also noted that Dolezal claimed that the university’s decision to remove some of her artworks from a February 2001 student exhibition was “motivated by a discriminatory purpose to favor African-American students over” her.
As detailed in the court opinion, Dolezal’s lawsuit contended that Howard was “permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult.”
Both the DC Superior Court and the DC Court of Appeals dismissed the claim, and held Dolezal responsible for court costs.
Leftists may be running laps trying to cover for this legitimate (at least in the hyper-racial context) instance of cultural appropriation, but the pressure still seems to have been too much for Dolezal and her activist colleagues.
Today, she resigned her post with the Spokane NAACP:
…And yet, the dialogue has unexpectedly shifted internationally to my personal identity in the context of defining race and ethnicity.
I have waited in deference while others expressed their feelings, beliefs, confusions and even conclusions – absent the full story. I am consistently committed to empowering marginalized voices and believe that many individuals have been heard in the last hours and days that would not otherwise have had a platform to weigh in on this important discussion. Additionally, I have always deferred to the state and national NAACP leadership and offer my sincere gratitude for their unwavering support of my leadership through this unexpected firestorm.
While challenging the construct of race is at the core of evolving human consciousness, we can NOT afford to lose sight of the five Game Changers (Criminal Justice & Public Safety, Health & Healthcare, Education, Economic Sustainability, and Voting Rights & Political Representation) that affect millions, often with a life or death outcome. The movement is larger than a moment in time or a single person’s story, and I hope that everyone offers their robust support of the Journey for Justice campaign that the NAACP launches today!
I am delighted that so many organizations and individuals have supported and collaborated with the Spokane NAACP under my leadership to grow this branch into one of the healthiest in the nation in 5 short months. In the eye of this current storm, I can see that a separation of family and organizational outcomes is in the best interest of the NAACP.
It has become clear that Dolezal is going to defend this strange controversy for as long as she can. It’s a distraction from other major issues affecting our culture, but it might turn out to be an important one. If one activist can redefine what it means to be a member of a protected class, how long until that definition takes hold and moves beyond “the national conversation” and into the realm of law and order? We’ve seen it happen with regards to gender and sexuality; is race forbidden territory? Or are we looking at the beginning of a new faux-crusade?
Only time will tell.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
She’s not white.
She’s not black.
Her race is : opportunist.
… it that an “opportunracist” ?
I believe the new term is “trans-racial”.
I’m thinking that to repeat their made-up word only validates the fraud.
I believe it’s no more made up than “trans-gender,” and that has gained wide acceptance. 😉
Trans-Jenner? Gasp!
True,like using “gay” for homosexual. Up to us if we accept the usage (or not), and thereby validate it.
Ahhh……..she was just mirroring Lizzie Warren………
Bless her little pea-pickin’ heart.
This poor fruit bat has a looooooonnnnnngg and varied career of certifiable crazy, including a series of hate-crime fantasies.
From her statement, I’d say she’s mastered the vocabulary of the BGI, and will re-emerge in due time as the head of some-damn-thing or other.
She bids fair to be the female Al Sharpton.
I feel a book coming .. unless the NAACP paid her to never talk
“Sort Of Orange Like Me”.
Since “Black Like Me” was done decades ago.
“Sort of Orange Like Me”? That should be written by John Boehner.
Leave Johnny alone. You’ll make him cry.
Starting with ‘Barack Hussein Obama (or whoever he really is) and ending with Hillary Clinton, is there anyone on the left who is not a complete fraud?
Oh, it started LOOONG before Barack Hussein Obama….
Hey, a Potemkin Village can ONLY be populated by Potemkin people.
The Collective is Potemkin people all the way down.
The court opinion also noted that Dolezal claimed that the university’s decision to remove some of her artworks from a February 2001 student exhibition was “motivated by a discriminatory purpose to favor African-American students over” her.
Now I understand her change of race. If you can’t beat ’em join ’em.
As I’ve been saying for some years now, there is a positive advantage to identifying as “black” in modern America.
Or as Glenn Reynolds has recently observed, if being a white male is so great, why are all the “transformations” going the other direction?
I was reently told astory about a guy who checked off “Black” on his admission forms. When he arrive at college, he looked about as White as could be, but nobody ever asked.
Note that Ms. Dolezal accused the (probably nearly entirely) black administration at Howard U of racism, something of which she’d probably today deny that black people are capable.
Sad that Legal Insurrection is serving the much despised “Promoted Content From The Web” ads. I summarily block any site with these ads, since they are supremely annoying clickbait and deliberately evade adblockers with daily domain changes.
Please fix it!
The pictures are so horrible that I have to close my eyes when scrolling past the ad section. I wish they would all go away!
I’ve been thinking exactly the same thing lately. I don’t know if it’s just a particularly annoying batch of useless crap at the moment, or what … but it’s getting seriously annoying.
I agree about the ads. They are enticing pornographic human commodities used to sell material commodities.
The ads are Pure Capitalism and they’re great! You should be ashamed of yourself for complaining about them. Bow down to your BSD 1%er MBA CEO Manager masters! /sarc
This seems like the wrong conclusion from the facts.
I’d say she was psychologically scarred by the racist bigotry she experienced from Howard, and has since then tried desperately to pass as not-white, like a Jew in Nazi Germany trying desperately to pass as a non-Jew.
This is probably the trauma that broke her, not a pattern of bad behavior.
Of course, going to Howard and expecting equal treatment is really, really dumb. And being traumatized by having your art removed from a show is pretty flimsy. But then I understand her home life was less than optimal.
I think there are probably even more twists to this story.
This is invalidates all that the NAACP is supposed to stand for. They endorse this by not coming out immediately and condemning the actions of this woman. Although you can say she has done more to end racism than any activist ever has. Think about it, since the NAACP and leading “anti-racism” activists never condemned it then they endorse it. If they endorse it then it is alright and there is no more racism. We are living in a post-racial America!!!
On one hand. On the other hand, the revelation of her dysfunctional history has exposed the social complex, especially civil rights industry, both private and public, to public scrutiny. They are not seeking to reconcile individual dignity, and certainly not intrinsic value; and their goals do not include normalization or promotion of social cohesiveness and stability.
It was around that time she learned about the limitations of white privilege and the perks of black privilege.
….la la la….”you get your money for nothing, and your chicks for free”…la la la…..
Look, you can’t fight city hall. As they say, if you can’t beat them, join them. Good for her. There’s a lesson here for all of us.
I’m also intrigued why none of the gossip folks haven’t started a meme on how she got so brown! I’m sure all of Hollywood is dying to figure it out!
Dolezal and Fauxahauntas and Obama have demonstrated that, if you are less than fully competent, it can pay tremendously, in today’s dysfunctional society, to avail yourself of the advantages of the quota system. Jeb Bush and too many other anti-American politicians want to extend these advantages to illegal aliens.
I should apply for a job tomorrow as an illegal foreign student African Amerind — I’d probably be a candidate for VP in a matter of months.
The only reason this kind the cancer of Obama/Fauxchantas/etc. is able to grow is because of the corrupt American news media.
Could this get any worse? When can we expect the sex tape to be leaked?
“If one activist can redefine what it means to be a member of a protected class, how long until that definition takes hold and moves beyond “the national conversation” and into the realm of law and order? We’ve seen it happen with regards to gender and sexuality; is race forbidden territory? Or are we looking at the beginning of a new faux-crusade?”
A crusade that would be the equivalent of shooting oneself in the foot. Dolezal herself decries the “construct of race,” while the entire race-hustle edifice, from Affirmative Action to “black lives matter” relies upon that construct. Eliminate the construct by allowing the lines to blur to a degree that race becomes meaningless, and the whole enterprise collapses.
‘I still haven’t figured out how one can with a straight face “identify” as someone of another race, …’
Let me try: Hallie Berry, for instance, identifies as “black” even though her mother (who raised her) is white, and she insists that her own daughter should identify as “black” even though the girl is 3/4 white, with a blond father. And don’t you think she would hope for her grandchildren to identify as “black” too, even if they have a white father and a 3/4 white mother?
So, you really don’t have to go much further to say one can identify as “black” with no African ancestry whatsoever.
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
Is their a category of victim-hood Dolezal hasn’t claimed?
Remember Ward Churchill?
In 2005, a teacher at Colorado University named Ward Churchill tried to pass himself off as an American Indian, and then he tried to claim a painting by Thomas E. Mails as his own.
In 2015, an instructor at Eastern Washington U. named Rachel Dolezal is trying to pass as black and claim a painting by J.M.W. Turner as her own.
Is there anyone on the Left who isn’t a phony?
People, we’re just getting started. There are many more levels for this:
Transspecies (where you decide you’re actually an eagle or a polar bear)
Exotransspecies (where you decide you’re a species from another planet)
Transmaterial (where you decide you’re 100% a gas or a liquid)
? ? ?
Translingual (Where the English you’re actually speaking must be heard and respected as another language, of the speaker’s choice: Russian, Chinese, Klingon, etc.).