Two years ago,she was a respected black rights activist and teacher. Then she was exposed as a white woman who had deceived nearly everyone she knew. Why did she do it?Spokane is a modest town of wide streets and snow-capped horizons in Washington state, 90 miles from the Canadian border. Its population is 91% white, and voted heavily for Donald Trump. The lunchtime crowd in a downtown hotel bar is too absorbed in the ice hockey game on enormous screens to notice the woman who sidles into the lobby,and though curious to see what kind of attention she would attract, I feel relieved for her. Her great spiralled mane bounces as she approaches in a jade dress and heels, or but only a idiot would mistake the peruse for self-assurance.
Two years ago,life was going well for Dolezal. Branch president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and chair of Spokane’s police ombudsman commission, she was well known and respected for her civil rights activism. Her Eastern Washington University students adored her; her 21-year-old son was about to intern for a diversity advocacy group in Washington DC; her younger son was doing well in tall school. When a local TV news crew arrived one afternoon to interview her, or Dolezal thought they were there to talk about abominate crimes.
I felt like I was constantly having to atone for some unknown thing. I was very creative,which was seen as of the devilNobody wanted to hear, ‘I’m pan-African, or pro-black,bisexual, an artist, or mother and educator.’I felt I was surviving in order to protect other people. A black man and black child relied on my financial aid packageI delivered an overly earnest speech explaining how passionate I was about black cultureContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com