Rachel Dolezal, the former NAACP chapter leader exposed for lying about her racial identity, has found herself in the national spotlight, once again, for the wrong reasons.
A Netflix documentary about her life since her so-called “transracial” identity was revealed came out in April, and it largely showed she and her family struggling. Dolezal lost jobs at the NAACP, in African studies at Eastern Washington University, and was removed by the city council as chair of the police ombudsman commission over “a pattern of misconduct.” Out of work, she published a memoir, “In Full Color,” about her experience pretending to be black.
Depressingly, when her children are interviewed in the Netflix documentary called “The Rachel Divide,” they’re very open about how they wish their mother would stop putting herself in the spotlight. Unfortunately, that spotlight doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon, again, entirely by Dolezal’s own doing.
According to Fox News: “Dolezal was booked and fingerprinted at a Washington state jail Monday as she awaits trial on multiple charges, including welfare fraud. [Dolezal] pleaded not guilty to state charges of first-degree theft by welfare fraud, making false verification and second-degree perjury last month.”
The amount of fraud was relatively small, at least compared to the more egregious cases that tend to make the news. Dolezal received $8,800 in food and childcare assistance illegally between August 2015 and November 2017.
It was her book that set off red flags, as Dolezal was receiving assistance before the book’s publication, and then continued to receive benefits after publication. Despite being a published author, she’d only reported income of less than $500 a month to the State, maintaining her eligibility for benefits.
That struck State investigators as a bit odd. Despite Dolezal’s unpopularity, certainly, someone with her level of infamy would bring in more than $500 a month from her book after its release, right? Indeed, a subpoena of her bank records would reveal that Dolezal deposited over $84,000 into her bank account from 2015-2017, without reporting most of it to the Department of Social and Health Services. Dolezal only reported one job in October 2017 worth $20,000.
Surprisingly, no one has brought up the possibility that Dolezal evaded taxes. If she didn’t report her income properly to her State government, did she report it accurately to the Federal government? If not, it’s a smoking gun that she committed tax evasion, too.