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Like many others in our area, OpenCdA is intrigued by the news, skews, and views stories about Rachel Dolezal. We have not formed an opinion about her behavior because we’re not at all clear what the issues are.
However, we have some questions of our own for which timely, factual answers would help us be (1) better informed or (2) more confused.
1. Why now? As nearly as we’ve been able to determine, KXLY in Spokane aired this story on Wednesday, June 10, 2015. A few hours later the Coeur d’Alene Press ran this story. One need only look at the link provided in our first paragraph to get some idea of how this information has spread since those stories hit the fan. The information in those stories is relatively stale, much of it available and knowable for years if anyone had cared to look. But apparently no one including prospective employers cared to look until now. Why now?
2. If prospective employers including Eastern Washington University, the Spokane Chapter of the NAACP, or the Mayor and City Council of the City of Spokane had looked and presumably found the same information found by the news, skews, and views media, would they have concluded at that time she was suitable or unsuitable for employment based on that information? Would those prospective employers have verified through objective and thorough background investigations that any derogatory information was credible and relevant to the position for which she was applying?
3. Who would have a motive to see Dolezal very publicly discredited and removed from any of her positions as adjunct instructor at Eastern Washington University, Spokane Chapter NAACP President, or Spokane Police Ombudsman Commission Chairman? What are the motive(s) be for this very public campaign to discredit her?
If any of Dolezal’s acts amount to crimes or actions justifying termination of employment or appointment, we wonder why public attack campaign was chosen over the more accepted remedies available in the law.
4. Who would have the influence and means to ignite and sustain the public firestorm that has surrounded Dolezal?
5. What specific and proven acts of misrepresentation or misconduct has Dolezal committed that would sustain termination by any of her employers? For example, the skews media have reported that:
Last week, [Spokane] Mayor David Condon and City Council President Ben Stuckart announced that the city would investigate whether Dolezal lied on her application to become an ombudsman commissioner. She checked multiple boxes on a form inquiring her race, including white and black.
If Dolezal did check multiple boxes on a form inquiring her race and to whatever extent that amounts to a false or deceptive statement related to her prospective employment or appointment, what followup action did Condon & Company take to resolve it? Or did they simply choose to ignore Dolezal’s responses to an arguably improper question about the applicant’s race in pre-employment screening? In any case, the City of Spokane had her information and still chose to appoint and confirm her to the Ombudsman Commission. If checking multiple boxes wasn’t wrong then, why is it wrong now?
It has been our experience that public institutions and organizations often lack the will or the skill to handle employment issues properly. They may “fall in love” with an applicant with the result that they intentionally ignore or rationalize credible derogatory information that should disqualify the applicant. To make matters worse, after hiring an unsuitable applicant and failing to timely provide honest evaluations, employers turn to unethical and sometimes unlawful actions to make the employee quietly go away. Sometimes that works; usually it doesn’t.
As we said, we don’t know the full story about Rachel Dolezal. We are skeptical about the completeness of news, skews, and views media reports.
So, like everyone else, we’ll just wait and see what comes out.
The S-R reported on June 11th that a private investigator had been investigating this person. http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/jun/11/board-member-had-longstanding-doubts-about-truthfu/ Who was the investigator? Who paid for the investigator? Answers to these two questions might lead to answers to some of the questions that you raise.
Comment by Tributary — June 15, 2015 @ 11:19 am
Tributary,
I saw that article and wondered the same thing and also wondered when the investigator was hired and began investigating.
Another question: Who will be “collateral damage”?
My impression is that both the KXLY story on June 10 and the d’Pressing story just hours later were spoon-fed to the respective “reporters.”
Comment by Bill — June 15, 2015 @ 11:53 am
Isn’t the d’press story the first ‘investigative’ story it has run for a long time?
Comment by Tributary — June 15, 2015 @ 12:18 pm
Tributary,
So why now? Dolezal had long since departed CdA. The information provided in the past few days was available when she was here, but the Press was more cheerleader than fact-finder then. Who benefits if Dolezal goes down hard?
Comment by Bill — June 15, 2015 @ 1:33 pm
How did the Human Right’s Institute in Coeurdalene get their financing or the NAACP Spokane chapter for that matter? Is their bottom line directly related to reported/alleged hate crimes in order to secure revenue and show cause for existence? Are some of the funds as in grant money dispersed back to the writer or officers of the organization? You know it is about the money, it is always about the money.
Comment by Stebbijo — June 15, 2015 @ 8:23 pm
Stebbijo,
Here is a link to an HREI webpage. It may help answer some of your questions. According to the IRS EO, HREI is eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
HREI is required to file IRS Form 990 which is a public record. HREI is required to provide you with a copy of its filed IRS Form 990 upon request. Part VII of that form is supposed to list compensation for officers, directors, trustees, key employees, and highest compensated employees.
Also, here is a link to HREI’s 2015 Annual Report filed with the Idaho Secretary of State.
Comment by Bill — June 16, 2015 @ 6:57 am
It’s much easier to deceive when the recipients are eager and gullible enough to believe applicant-supplied information without independent verification. Apparently the concept of investigating backgrounds of applicants, or at the very least independently verifying the information provided by applicants, is as foreign to people in Spokane (including The Spokesman-Review and Inlander) as it was to the people in Coeur d’Alene (including the Press).
Again, if Dolezal did check multiple boxes in the “What Race Are You” category in her application for the Spokane Police Ombudsman Commission, that would certainly have warranted a subject (applicant) interview to resolve that response if reject her application. With such a questionable response, it would be dereliction of duty for the selection committee to blindly appoint her with such a red flag waving in their faces. Instead, apparently Spokane City Councilman and Public Safety Committee Chairman Jon Snyder and former Spokane police Officer Cliff Walter blissfully ignored the inconsistent response supplied by the applicant.
One has to wonder: If Snyder and Walter had insisted on a subject interview with Dolezal, would her responses in that interview have raised other questions about her suitability for appointment? Or might her responses have raised reasonable questions about the validity of requiring applicants to identify as being of one specific race or of any race for that matter?
Comment by Bill — June 16, 2015 @ 8:29 am
Rachel Dolezal was employed at the Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d’Alene, ID from 2008 to 2010, according to Wikipedia. If you look at previous SOS filings from 2007 thru 2010, you might recognize a few names and then they drop off in 2011. Interesting. For example here is 2008 – see anyone you know?
Comment by Stebbijo — June 16, 2015 @ 6:29 pm
This article describes Selle’s breaking of the story. http://www.kxly.com/news/north-idaho-news/how-the-coeur-dalene-press-broke-the-dolezal-story/33598298 I got all of the police reports she had filed in Coeur d’Alene, found out none of them were actually resolved and a lot of them were pretty curious,” Selle said.” I am curious to know the dates of those alleged hate crimes.
Comment by Stebbijo — June 16, 2015 @ 6:39 pm
Stebbijo,
RE: Comment 9 — As I said in my post, most of the information was known or knowable back then. Why is the Press colluding with KXLY to make it known now? Who wins and who loses by this coming out now?
Comment by Bill — June 16, 2015 @ 7:39 pm
Does the big “H” want the Human Rights Institute property, too? Maybe, like the CdA Chamber of Commerce, they too … cannot pay the rent. And in flipping the reputation of North Idaho, he stands to gain even more by scapegoating out one of the ‘players? We all know that the only publication(s) that kept the Aryan mentality alive were our local skews papers – the CdAPress and the S-R. They jumped on every story possible, they embellished the lack of diversity, here, I think, for a reason. There are Aryan groups are all over the U.S. and there is not nearly the focus on this subject that I have read here, ONLY because our skews papers kept it in the news and appeared to want it in the news. Our local papers built this negative reputation of North Idaho and suddenly now, we are finding that all of it was possibly a big lie and the CDAPRess just suddenly uncovers this unbelievable reporting, so unbelievable they publish more news on their own news. Something is clearly wrong, kind of like when the CDAPress taunted us with the breaking story of the city embezzlement and they were the first to know, so they could hold the story hostage and employ their own damage control. I do not know exactly what it is, but there is more. And, what I find uncanny is with all the FBI presence we had/have in this area concerning the Aryan/hate crimes agenda is the FBI never picked up on any of this deceit? Way messed up and for someone who (Rachel Dolezal) is reported as suing a Black University for discrimination because she was Caucasian, I would venture to say that she knows exactly what she is doing in order to come out smelling like a rose with her unique ‘identity’ claim, while she continues to hold her hand of cards and still claim to advance diversity.
Comment by Stebbijo — June 16, 2015 @ 8:28 pm
One more thought and then I will let this rest. Where are the comments/interviews from those who are at the helm of diversity and human rights in Coeur d’Alene? Oh, I know, they must all be on vacation.
Comment by Stebbijo — June 16, 2015 @ 8:53 pm
Does Idaho or Washington have a law making it a crime for a person to give law enforcement personnel false information regarding the commission of a crime? If so, it would be interesting to know if Ms. Dolezal is being investigated for such a possible charge?
Comment by Tributary — June 17, 2015 @ 2:58 pm
Tributary,
In Washington, I believe it’s RCW 9A.76.175, and in Idaho it’s I.C. §18-5413. Among the many things I don’t know is what each state’s statute of limitations is on whatever the offense was when it was committed. Federally, 18 USC 876 (Mailing Threatening Communication) might apply, but that might depend on if it can be proven the communication was actually handled, processed, and delivered by the U.S. Mail.
Comment by Bill — June 17, 2015 @ 3:18 pm
Let’s say that the harassment claims are all bogus. But, who actually initiated the actual harassment or was there collusion involved?
Comment by Stebbijo — June 17, 2015 @ 5:29 pm