Rachel Dolezal, the president of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter in Spokane Washington, resigned from her post amid the controversy about her 'fake race', theguardian.com reports.
The story of Dolezal claiming a different race became viral on Friday after her parents' statements in a local news station. Ruthanne and Larry Dolezal spoke that their daughter, who claims to be of African lineage, is actually of Czech and German heritage - with "traces of Native American ancestry".
Local and national representatives of NAACP did internal deliberations to which after Dolezal announced her resignation.
She reached out through a 544-word Facebook post on Spokane NAACP's Facebook page:
"I have waited in deference while others expressed their feelings, beliefs, confusions and even conclusions - absent the full story," Dolezal wrote in the statement. "I am consistently committed to empowering marginalized voices and believe that many individuals have been heard in the last hours and days that would not otherwise have had a platform to weigh in on this important discussion."
"In the eye of this current storm, I can see that a separation of family and organizational outcomes is in the best interest of the NAACP," she wrote.
There was no confirmation or denial of her race in the statement and during an interview with Sky News, she was quoted that she "would definitely consider" herself to be black. She added that she does not "give two shits" about what her parents say.
Shortly after the Facebook post has been published, the Twitter world weighed-in, both in support of her and against the issue of 'deception'. Here are some of the Twitter posts in this cnn.com report:
@mzdynasty: #RachelDolezal stepped down today. She would have been more honorable if she had just been herself and worked with NAACP
@aliciamwalters: #RachelDolezal congratulates herself 4 giving all of us a voice & success of the Spokane NAACP but it's not bout her https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1623781377868883&id=1431901697056853&ref=content_filter ...
Cornell William Brooks, president of the national NAACP, also weighed in on Dolezal's resignation:
"Our members who looked up to her, appreciated her leadership, are pained, very disappointed," he told CNN. "This is a distraction from the work."
He added: "The NAACP is not concerned with the racial identity of our leadership but the institutional integrity of our advocacy. Our focus must be on issues not individuals."
