In case you haven’t turned on a television in the last month, or this is your first time on the Internet (and thanks for picking Makeagif.com as your first ever website to visit!) let us quickly catch you up on Rachel Dolezal. She’s a Spokane, Washington, based civil rights activist, African studies professor, and visual artist, who was president of the local NAACP chapter and Chair of police ombudsman commission.
Dolezal had built a reputation as a prominent Washington black activist. But after years of identifying herself as a light-skinned biracial black woman it was revealed at the beginning of June, by Dolezal’s parents to the media, that both of them are white and Dolezar’s heritage is Swedish, Czech, and German.
They also released some photos showing a young Dolezar as blonde, blue-eyed, freckled straight haired, girl:
Just in case you need to see that in GIF form:
So, basically, she’s super-white, this is the ethnicity she was born as:
Apparently Dolezar has been darkening her skin and hair while giving herself an “afro” through artificial means.
Over the years, and right up the present moment, Dolezal’s said some pretty amazing things that are pretty crazy when you consider the revelations about her identity. And some of her past statements are particularly noteworthy when examined through the lens of knowing what we know now. Let’s look at some of our favorites.
“We’re all from the African continent.”
Her response when asked if she’s African-American by a local newspaper on June 11th after the scandal broke.
“Actually, I don’t like the term African-American; I prefer black. So, if asked, I would say, yes, I consider myself to be black.”
Dolezar’s answer to a different journalist when quizzed about her ethnicity on June 12th
“No, no, no. He has no business being here talking about issues that are specific to black people because he is white…As a white pereson, he has no authority to speak about racism or issues that affect black people.”
Eeeek! Dolezal said this earlier this year to colleagues in protest to activist Tim Wise giving a talk on racism at the college she taught at..
“Follow the money trail. A white woman makes millions off of a black woman’s story.”
Dolezal’s thoughts on the movie The Help back in 2012.
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“You don’t look Hispanic. I doubt that you could share experiences of racial or ethnic discrimination because you don’t have the appearance of looking Hispanic.”
This is the explanation Dolezar gave to one of her students in 2014, a young Hispanic woman, as to why the student couldn’t participate in a class project that explored racial and cultural experiences.
“The Black Lives Matter movement should be for black Americans only.”
Said to Rosa Clemente, a community organizer with a mixed black/Puerto Rican background, back in January 2015.
“A lot of people think ‘I’m not racist because I have a black friend,’ or ‘I’m not racist because I have ablack partner.’ Or ‘I’m not racist because my kids are part-black,’ or whatever. You’re using that to justify something — kind of a free pass. It doesn’t mean you understand or identify with the struggle and liberation of that community.”
This doozy is taken from an interview she gave in early 2014.
“I plunged into black history and novels, feeling the relieving release of understanding and common ground. My struggles paled as I read of the atrocities so many ancestors faced in America.”
From Dolezal’s 2002 admittance essay to Howard University, a historically black college
“Hopefully nobody goes to that film. We need to boycott that film, from my perspective because it’s miseducation, It’s misrepresentation. it’s highly offensive to the people that actually were living during that time and also to people today. It’s robbing and shredding ancestry and history. . . . It’s really disturbing that this is something that’s still perpetrated,”
This quote is from an interview in 2013 where she calls for a boycott of the film Exodus: Gods and Monsters due to white actors cast as Egyptians
