Al Sharpton Defends Rachel Dolezal; Drags Her Parents
Al Sharpton has some questions for Lawrence and Ruthanne Dolezal about why they waited until Friday to appear on TV to discuss their controversial daughter, Rachel Dolezel.
Dolezel’s parents outed the NAACP local president as a white woman pretending to be black, and Sharpton was approached by TMZ one day later to give his thoughts.
When asked if what the Dolezel parents did was wrong, Sharpton first brought up the NAACP description of the story as a family dispute, but then said that Rachel’s parents were trying to create a distraction from her activism in social justice.
“On one level, you’ve got to say to her, ‘you’re misleading us’, but another level, mom and dad, come on,” Sharpton said. “Are we gonna have this dysfunctional family stuff play out and distract us from key civil rights causes?
Sharpton then brought up the fact that Dolezel’s parents knew about their daughter’s involvement in the NAACP, saying they betrayed their daughter by waiting until she became a center of attention. “You’ve got to ask the question, ‘what are Mom and Dad’s motives here… where’ve you been?”
Sharpton weighed in on Rachel Dolezal at the end of his MSNBC show tonight, but he didn’t really dig deep into the serious issue of deception surrounding her. He talked about being “truthful about who you are” and questions about her “transparency and honesty,” but didn’t dwell much on it.
Instead, Sharpton talked a lot about the “long history of integrated activism in the civil rights movement” and how whites and blacks “fought together” for justice, and an NAACP leader being white shouldn't, in and of itself, lead to outrage.
My only issue with her is that she lied. If she likes the culture and wants to be immersed in it, that's fine. But the fact that she went around misleading people is what's wrong to me.
dragging the parents really? all they did was expose this fake mess but basically he supports her, which is whatever I guess. I mean even though she is white and a liar she's done a lot more for the NAACP/Black community than most so do you Rachel...
I could care less about what her parent's motives are when it comes to this topic, and I really do not like that he attempts to deflect the actual issue with that topic.
Are her parent's motives questionable? Absolutely. But that doesn't change the actual issue of her years of lying and deceit.
