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Rachel Dolezal's brother accuses her of "blackface"
Quote:
Ezra Dolezal says he didn't know how to respond the day he said his adopted sister took him aside and insisted he "not to blow her cover" about having a black father.
On that day three years ago, he said, his sister Rachel Dolezal. 37, told him she was starting life anew in Spokane, Washington, where she's now head of the local chapter of the NAACP and chairwoman of a police oversight committee.
Ezra Dolezal came to visit her from Montana, where their parents live. His adopted sister was on her way to becoming one of the most prominent faces in Spokane's black community.
"She told me not to blow her cover about the fact that she had this secret life or alternate identity," Ezra Dolezal said Saturday. "She told not to tell anybody about Montana or her family over there. She said she was starting a new life... and this one person over there was actually going to be her black father."
"I kind of saw it coming," Ezra Dolezal said of the controversy. "Instead of sticking to a simple story, she's been trying to make this really complex and it finally got too big for her to handle."
According to court documents obtained by CNN, Rachel Dolezal's adopted brother, Izaiah -- who is black -- sought emancipation from Ruthanne and Lawrence Dolezal in 2010. The adopted brother, now 21, said the Dolezals used "physical forms of punishment" and had sent his brother and sister away to group homes because they didn't cooperate with the couple's religion and rules.
On that day three years ago, he said, his sister Rachel Dolezal. 37, told him she was starting life anew in Spokane, Washington, where she's now head of the local chapter of the NAACP and chairwoman of a police oversight committee.
Ezra Dolezal came to visit her from Montana, where their parents live. His adopted sister was on her way to becoming one of the most prominent faces in Spokane's black community.
"She told me not to blow her cover about the fact that she had this secret life or alternate identity," Ezra Dolezal said Saturday. "She told not to tell anybody about Montana or her family over there. She said she was starting a new life... and this one person over there was actually going to be her black father."
Dolezal's race has come under question after her estranged mother claimed she is white but is "being dishonest and deceptive with her identity."
Dolezal has identified herself as at least partly African-American but her Montana birth certificate states she was born to two parents who say they are Caucasian. The parents shared that document and old photos with CNN.
"I kind of saw it coming," Ezra Dolezal said of the controversy. "Instead of sticking to a simple story, she's been trying to make this really complex and it finally got too big for her to handle."
CNN has tried to reach Rachel Dolezal for comment by emailing and calling her but was unsuccessful. The Spokane Spokesman-Review newspaper reported, though, that she has framed the controversy surrounding her racial identity in the context of litigation over guardianship of one of her adopted brother.
"We are her birth parents," Lawrence Dolezal told CNN on Friday. "We do not understand why she feels it's necessary to misrepresent her ethnicity."
Rachel Dolezal grew up in what her parents called a diverse family, with friends from various ethnicities and four adopted siblings who were black. She was "always interested in ethnicity and diversity" growing up, her mother Ruthanne Dolezal said.
Dolezal attended college in Mississippi, then went on to Howard University on scholarship -- not having identified herself black then on her application, because there was no such option, though people there may have assumed as much "because her portfolio of art was all African-American portraiture," her mother said.
It wasn't until around 2007, her parents said, that Dolezal began identifying herself more with the African-American community, according to her mother.
Her parents say Rachel Dolezal "has chosen to distance herself from the family."
According to court documents obtained by CNN, Rachel Dolezal's adopted brother, Izaiah -- who is black -- sought emancipation from Ruthanne and Lawrence Dolezal in 2010. The adopted brother, now 21, said the Dolezals used "physical forms of punishment" and had sent his brother and sister away to group homes because they didn't cooperate with the couple's religion and rules.
'Slap in the face'
The adopted brother wanted to live with Rachel Dolezal "in a multiracial household where black culture is celebrated and I have a connection to the black community," the court papers said. The papers did not specify Rachel Dolezal's race.
Ezra Dolezal said the accusations of physical punishment were false. They divided the family. He said never confronted his adopted sister when she asked him not to blew her cover because he didn't want to make the situation worse.
His adopted sister was always interested in African-American culture but it wasn't until about 2011 that he started to notice physical changes.
"There was the gradual darkening of the skin and the hair," he said. "She started molding herself into who she is today."
He said Dolezal's transformation was tantamount to living in "blackface."
"It's kind of a slap in the face to African-Americans because she doesn't know what it's like to be black," said Ezra Dolezalm, whose biological mother was white and father half black. "She's only been African-American when it benefited her. She hasn't been through all the struggles. She's only been African-American the last few years."
Dolezal's time at predominantly black Howard University may have been a major turning point in her transformation, her adopted brother said.
"When she applied they thought she was a black student," he said. "When she came there, they saw she was white and she wasn't treated that well, especially people that worked there. She probably started developing this kind of dislike for being white and dislike for white people. She used to tell Izaiah ... that all white people are racists. She might have developed some self-hatred."
She represents the black community publicly and vocally, including as a spokeswoman on race-influenced police violence. On Tuesday she spoke to Al Jazeera on the topic. And Dolezal has appeared alongside Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who has filed charges against police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, a young black man.
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http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/13/us/was...opted-brother/
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her making it into Howard
you guys have no problem supporting other tranracials like Beyonce and Nicki.
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