Tag Archives: Rachel Dolezal

Emil Guillermo: Rachel Dolezal, Dylann Roof aren’t going to wreck my Father’s Day.

On the race beat, we were all wearying of Rachel Dolezal’s tale knowing there was something more important to talk about.

But Dylann Roof’s old fashioned racism with the fresh-faced millennial look wouldn’t have been my first choice among replacement subjects.

dylannroof

Roof’s massacre was deplorable. And his  tirade against blacks, sounded like the things said about Filipino immigrants like my Dad in one of the most racist periods in California in the 20s and 30s.

It made for an unlikely Father’s Day gift I wasn’t expecting.

Click here to read my column  on the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund blog.

 

Emil Guillermo: Rachel Dolezal resigns NAACP post–did she have to?

I was expecting more of a fight.

But it looks like Rachel Dolezal was being pressured on both sides for passing.

It’s not like we have a real hard and fast standard for identity.

Even in the Census, we live in a “you are what you say you are world,” with the ability to self-define.

You can call yourself anything. If that’s who you say you are, then it’s fine for the official count.

It’s not passing. It’s not lying. Just mark one box and live with it.

Given that set of ethics,  I’m surprised that Rachel Dolezal was unable to weather the storm created in the media and resigned this morning from her NAACP post in Spokane.

Even the NAACP said there was nothing in its  by-laws preventing her from holding a leadership position in the organization.

So what do we have here?

Likely some kind of internal politics, where some may feel the leadership of an NAACP chapter is an “African American” only position, and used the issue of her race to raise a critical point of ethics and integrity.  Enough to oust Dolezal.

Passing as black? Oh mon dieu!

It also riled up those on the outside who look on the NAACP in Spokane as “the enemy,” who made it a big “Gotcha!”

Still, anybody hurt by Dolezal’s transgressions?

From all accounts, she has been an effective activist and leader.

Now she’s gone.

If you were on the inside and hated Dolezal, you’re smiling.

And if you’re up there in the conservative part of western Washington, you’ve just touched up a real adversary by discrediting and needlessly putting the NAACP through the national media wringer.