The parents of a white NAACP leader who claimed to be African American have claimed that she cut them out because she didn’t want them ruining her image. Larry and Ruthanne Dolezal spoke from their home in Troy, Montana on Friday after they revealed that their daughter, Spokane’s NAACP Chapter President Rachel Dolezal, has been misleading people about her ethnicity for years.
Dolezal, who has been a civil rights activist across Idaho and Washington and works part-time as an Africana Studies professor at Eastern Washington University, is now facing a city ethics probe for falsely claiming on an application that she was black. Her parents, who are estranged from their daughter, say they first found out she was claiming to be African American as they read a newspaper article about her ‘some years ago’.
Confusion: Other than some ‘faint traces’ of Native American blood, Ruthanne Dolezal’s mother told reporters the family background is Czech, Swedish and German.
Revelations: Larry and Ruthanne Dolezal, pictured speaking to CNN on Friday, have revealed their daughter, Spokane’s NAACP Chapter President Rachel Dolezal, is white – not African American
‘She has never claimed to be biracial or African-American in our presence,’ they told CNN.
But they have also not spoken to their daughter in years, they said. She has claimed in interviews that they were violent towards her, which they have denied. Instead, they say she has cut them out because she fears they will blow her cover.
‘Rachel has chosen to distance herself from the family and be hostile towards us,’ her mother said. ‘She doesn’t want us to be where she is, she doesn’t want to be seen with us because it ruins her image.’