Written by: BerThaddaeus Maurice P. Bailey
Recently the concept of Blackness was brought to the forefront of trending topics when Rachel Dolezal, a White woman of Czech and German descent and president of Spokane, Washington chapter of NAACP, falsely identified herself as a Black woman.
Dolezal obtained her master’s degree at Howard University, a Historically Black College or University (HBCU). Court documents disclose that in 2002 she filed a civil complaint against the university stating that the university was “permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult”. Her lawsuit claimed discrimination on the grounds of race because she was not offered an assistant teaching post, a post-graduate instructorship and was denied scholarship aid while attending the institution.