Confirmed white person Dolezal is in the news again thanks to Jireh Management of Cary, North Carolina, which has tapped her to speak at the city’s annual MLK Dreamfest Celebration next January. The theme of the event? “Healing Race Relations through Conversation and Participation.”
Jireh Management’s founder, Al Cohen, told the Raleigh News & Observer that Dolezal will participate in a “structured discussion” about her racial identity:
“We chose a person like Rachel Dolezal that has been depicted as a major villain through media because of her preference of racial identity,” said Al Cohen, CEO of Jireh Management Group. “And yet, she didn’t steal from anybody. She didn’t murder anybody. She didn’t rob anybody. She only had an affinity for a group of people, and she served her community well.”
Sure, Dolezal didn’t murder anyone. Most people don’t murder other people; that’s not much of a standard. But she is a liar, and her specific lie contradicts Cohen’s claims: She did steal. She stole an identity and claimed experiences that did not belong to her. She stole her way into a community, and into a leadership role in that community. Eventually, she stole her way to infamy.
She has apparently learned nothing from her national humiliation, either, as she still says she “identifies as black.” She can hardly rectify racial injustice as long as she refuses to acknowledge who she is or what her identity means. If she really wants to “heal race relations,” she can start by being honest—and by declining Cohen’s invitation to speak.