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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDolezal's fractured fundy family
Something I have noticed about the Rachel Dolezal story has been the glimpses of family dysfunction in the various articles.
I spent a little time last night exploring these further and can say that the more I dug, the stronger the dysfunction shows. I'm not surprised she would want to disassociate herself from her relatives and past. I think she went too far in doing that and agree with those on DU who have expressed concerns about her co-opting experiences that are not her own and the possible damage from the allegations she has made regarding what she depicts as racist incidents. She may have started down this path with good intentions, but now is enmeshed in a tangled mess of deception.
Why would her parents choose to out her now, after all this time?
One reason might be that they are on opposite sides in a case involving her older brother. An article in the NY Daily News provides some information on that. The article also has an interesting comment from her uncle noting the bond between her and the person she later claimed was her father.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/rachel-dolezal-older-brother-accused-child-molestation-article-1.2257560
Joshua Dolezal, 39, was charged in 2013 with four felony counts of sex abuse of a victim who was a minor at the time, sources and court records confirmed.
~~~
Dolezal declined to speak with The News on Saturday but previously suggested the timing of her white Montana-based parents media interviews about her racial identity was somehow connected to the Colorado case and designed to damage her credibility.
~~~
Its been years since she spoke with her parents, Larry and Ruthanne Dolezal. She became estranged from the pair well before the criminal case was brought against her brother, sources have said. Dolezal cut off contact with them sometime after her 2004 divorce and increasingly embraced black culture and brought her adopted brother Izaiah Dolezal to live with her in Idaho and Washington when he was a teen.
She even began claiming a close friend, Albert Wilkerson, a black man, was her father.
Paternal uncle Dan Dolezal said Dolezal and Wilkerson shared a father-daughter type of bond, but that her characterization of him as her real father bothered her biological relatives.
Why the estrangement from her parents and latching on to someone else as her 'real' father.
I wonder how much of this is due to the fundy background of her parents.
http://www.cdapress.com/news/local_news/article_385adfeb-76f3-5050-98b4-d4bf021c423f.html?mode=jqm
Rachel did not have to use bows and arrows to hunt for her own food, Ruthanne said, and she never lived in South Africa or Colorado. Ruthanne said she, Larry and the younger adopted siblings moved to South Africa in 2002, and lived there until 2006. Larry was stationed there as an employee of the faith-based Creation Ministries International.
~~~
Dolezal's father, Larry, told The Press by email Wednesday that Dolezal worked hard at her education. She graduated with a 4.0 GPA and was one of many co-valedictorians from Christian Liberty Academy Satellite School.
"We chose the option with parental oversight and a complete high school transcript processed through CLASS," Larry wrote. "Rachel required minimal supervision, because she was a highly motivated and responsible student."
Creation Ministries International is a creationist organization that spreads its views through missionary work abroad. Apparently, that's why her parents went to South Africa.
http://creation.com/what-we-are
The South African office was established in June 2002 in the Cape Town region as a consequence of the vision of Dr Johan Kruger, currently Head of Ministry Outreach, who has a doctorate in zoology. (Prior to 2002, Joshua Gilbert of the Durban region, acted as the South Africa agent for Creation magazine. He continues specialist creation outreach (especially radio) in South Africa and surrounding countries. Joshua currently serves on the Board of CMISouth Africa.) In October 2003 Larry Dolezal joined the ministry as the General Manager. With Larrys departure in June 2006 to manage the new CMIUSA office, Robert Zins now fills that position as CEO.
The children's page shows a dinosaur frolicking with people and assorted mammals.
http://creation.com/creation-for-kids
This looks to be a book written by her older brother, which gives some insight into how they were raised deep in the fundy beliefs. It also provides a possible glimpse of why their parents adopted the four children.
Down from the Mountaintop: From Belief to Belonging
By Joshua Dolezal
My mother sometimes called me a survivor of the holocaust on the unborn, since I was born after Roe vs Wade. Her distrust of clinicians was so strong I was born at home, without a physician or midwife and only my father and the one witness noted on my birth certificateJesus Christ to see me through.
Near the end of my senior year, my parents adopted the first of four children, determined to show their commitment to the pro-life cause, and I joined the crusade.
The information above provides more context for why one of Rachel's adopted brothers would seek emancipation and why she might reach out to protect him. It doesn't explain when or why they chose to depict themselves as mother and son rather than sister and brother. Maybe adoption afforded some legal or financial assistance or maybe expediency? Maybe part of breaking with the past?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/12/us/washington-spokane-naacp-rachel-dolezal-identity/
CNN tried to reach Rachel Dolezal for comment by emailing and calling her, but was unsuccessful. The Spokane Spokesman-Review. newspaper reported, though, that she has framed the controversy surrounding her racial identity in the context of litigation over guardianship of her adopted brother.
According to court documents obtained by CNN, Rachel Dolezal's adopted brother, who is black, sought emancipation from Ruthanne and Lawrence Dolezal in 2010. The adopted brother, now 21, said the Dolezals used "physical forms of punishment" and had sent his brother and sister away to group homes because they didn't cooperate with the couple's religion and rules.
The adopted brother wanted to live with Rachel Dolezal "in a multiracial household where black culture is celebrated and I have a connection to the black community," the court papers said. The papers did not specify Rachel Dolezal's race.
The petition for emancipation was dropped. In a separate legal action in 2010, the court appointed Rachel Dolezal to be the adopted brother's guardian with the consent of Ruthanne and Lawrence Dolezal.
What does come through is someone looking to escape from a family that pushed fundy beliefs onto their children. She seems to have done quite a bit of good along the way in her escape from her past and recreation of herself. Her close connection to and identification with an alternate father figure may have been a large part of that. However, it's one thing to move past that upbringing and another to pretend to an identity that is not hers and to buttress that through misleading people and lying about her race and about malicious events directed toward her because of because of race.
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)But, you have to admit the world she made up is a lot more sane than the one she fled. It's also possible it started because she was trying to protect her brother. It's not uncommon for white people to have difficulties adopting children who are black.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)and agree her created world is saner than the one she left behind.
I wonder if she started with small lies to avoid long explanations, then shifted at some point to bigger ones. Those lies are problems to me.
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)she was probably very naive about race as much as she wanted to learn she was still essentially clueless as to how people really feel about race issues. I think when she hit another road block she told another lie a bigger one. The one about her dad, I think she probably feels like he is her real dad. The one about people threatening her, I think she believes that as well. I think she needs to see someone to get professional help. It is very likely she has some kind of PTSD in addition to some borderline personality issues and other things related to her childhood. She probably wasn't beaten, but who knows. In any case a person doesn't have to be physically battered to develop mental issues from the way they are raised.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Hard to say what all went on in that family.
Parts of the older brother's book are searchable in Google books, but I'd guess that only presents part of the picture.
The first step for her is to stop digging deeper.
mainer
(12,037 posts)I feel sorry for her. I don't know why people are attacking her. Clearly her family is a complete mess.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)The deception is a problem though.
It undermines much of the good she has done.
Larry isn't really her father? What if Ruthanne (her mother) had an affair with a black man and Rachael was born as a result? It makes sense Larry and Ruthanne would hide this dark secret from Rachael and their crazy creationist ministries. If the truth came out Larry and Ruthanne would be cast out of their fundamentalist right wing life. What if Rachael had this sense of who she really was since she was a child? How would we feel then? Here we are cheering along with the tabloid media while they destroy a woman who in many ways is one of us, a social activist, an academic, a mother of children of color.
This whole thing makes me sick. I'm not saying Rachael doesn't have problems but to gleefully watch while someone's life is destroyed on the 24/7 news channels is in many ways worse than whatever Rachael has been accused of.
mainer
(12,037 posts)as opposed to focusing on sleaze bags who have actually done harm to society? I don't understand it.
mackerel
(4,412 posts)unfairness for someone like my daughter. My daughter is truly bi-racial and I don't see her being afforded the same opportunities as Rachel Dolezal. I see all of this as a great unfairness to women who are actually black and have known themselves to be black all their lives. Shouldn't black women being teaching courses on the black woman's struggle?
Nay
(12,051 posts)should see a problem with that any more than we would see a problem with a black professor teaching a course in Medieval History, for example. But those professors don't lie about what race they are. And the NAACP has no problem with white employees, either. But I hope they have a problem with lying, esp when she lied about getting death threats.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Given the dishonesty, I imagine there are many questions now about lessons she taught.
I think white women can have a place as an ally and meaningful dialogue needs to and can take place. But it MUST start from a base of honesty, not from a tissue of lies and half-truths.
I think your point about opportunities is a serious one.
I wish you and your daughter the best!
mackerel
(4,412 posts)sure if she'd care about the Rachel's of this world. I didn't want to minimize the lying, I just felt that it all leads to other issues in the black community. I wonder if she was even vetted?
haikugal
(6,476 posts)Thanks for your effort to understand this story and the background. Very interesting to say the least. K&R!
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Once I started looking for more info on those pieces of the puzzle, it just made me wonder more about the whole mess.
I still wonder about the mentions of a "private investigator" I noticed in some articles. Who hired one and why?
gollygee
(22,336 posts)and I wouldn't be surprised if having them as parents is what led to this. Also, I agree that the timing might have been intended to hurt her and/or cause people to question how believable shse is.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)It looks like it was hard to help her brother away from that environment and I can applaud her for doing that.
Given the damage to her believability, she may not be able to help the person accusing her older brother. I think I saw somewhere that might be the sister. If Rachel is the main witness, it might be harder to prove charges, even if true.
The credibility issue causes damage in other areas, too. In exaggerating and/or lying about possible hate crimes, she may have made it harder for the next person who is reporting an incident.
Spokane has had some genuinely horrific hate crimes. It's not all that long ago that a racist terrorist planted a bomb along the parade route for MLK Day.
yardwork
(61,793 posts)suffragette
(12,232 posts)organization her father works or worked in.
annabanana
(52,791 posts)felt.. "Oh my that poor girl".. There are clearly issues there that are hers and hers alone. My SECOND thought was what were those parents thinking? What did they want to accomplish with their actions? And what kind of parents would hold their own daughter up to the possibility of such public humiliation?
She was wrong to co-opt another culture and derive benefits from it, but I have no truck with those who are throwing brickbats at the poor kid.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)And the other sister might be the accuser in that lawsuit, so this might all be even a grimmer family situation than in the OP.
Damage was clearly down to her and her siblings by the parents and I can feel sympathy for her and them and understanding for getting as far away as possible.
Still, I think she has caused some damage now herself and that she keeps digging that hole deeper each day, the latest being postponing Monday's meeting while making it sound like it was a group decision.
TexasMommaWithAHat
(3,212 posts)I just googled his name and came up with that. Interesting.
Considering these kids were basically homeschooled, they both went quite far post high school.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)At first glance (at the limited parts I could view), I thought he rejected their beliefs for a time, then came back around to them. Just found a review that made it clear that he no longer shares their beliefs.
http://www.fjordsreview.com/reviews/down-mountaintop.html
Early in the book, Dolezal tells us, After two degrees and travel abroad, I no longer share my parents faith. That, however, does not mean that he has abandoned his family, or that the road was easy.
My error, there.
Still, there looks to be a major split with his parents supporting him in his lawsuit and Rachel supporting his accuser.
synergie
(1,901 posts)I had the same issues and sympathies as you when I heard this story, and something seemed off. I came across some postings that addressed this fundie background and was waiting for someone else to connect the dots while I did some homework on the web and fended of some seriously rabid and judgmental people who can't conceive of parents abusing their child, even when they're clearly doing on the videos in every story.
The lies they keep laughing about are the ones you've debunked, and so much more is explained about this situation in your very thoughtful post. Thank you for having the intelligence and the resourcefulness to post this well thought out, sympathetic, well researched post.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Thank you.
It looks like the media is starting to report on the fundy parts, though I haven't seen any note the creationist aspect beyond stating the name of the organization.
There's clearly a schism in their family, with a deep division between them.
I think looking at this provides a reason, but not an excuse. The more that has come out about Rachel, the more deception she's shown. Her parents may have outed her to damage her credibility, but her own actions through the years are what has really destroyed it.
synergie
(1,901 posts)I had to sign up just so I could commend you on your calm, intelligent post. Kudos!
Exactly. The facts provide much needed perspective on the whole mess. She's certainly evasive and rather a master of not lying but not telling the truth either.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)I fully support my sister.
C'est la Vie.
Viva la Vida.
And Fuck the System
Peace.
Signed, hot_tunes♪♫
aka Esther Dolezal
me b zola
(19,053 posts)We are covering Rachel Dolezals situation because she is a homeschool alumna. Rachel was homeschooled through Christian Liberty Academy. Her father, Larry Dolezal, worked for Creation Ministries International and was charged in 1999 with felony theft though the charges were later dismissed. We have also heard testimonies from numerous homeschool alumni who grew up knowing the Dolezal family that frequent and significant child abuse occurred in the family. The parents allegedly forced both Rachel and her older, biological brother Joshua to beat their younger, adopted siblings with plumbing supply line and two foot long glue sticks, a practice inspired by Michael and Debi Pearls book, To Train Up a Child. (Forced sibling-to-sibling corporal punishment is sadly not uncommon in some homeschooling circles.) Such a practice conjures up troubling images of Larry and Carri Williams, another homeschooling family that abused to death their adopted child, Hana. According to our sources, infant spanking (in public in their church parking lot, even) and blanket training were also common in the Dolezal family. Additionally, Rachels adopted brother Izaiah Dolezal has himself raised public allegations against his parents involving physical punishment, forced labor, and isolation in out-of-state group homes. With this background in mind, now comes the latest development in the Rachel Dolezal saga: Dolezals older brother Joshua is awaiting trial on charges he sexually abused a black child. Insinuations have been made that the parents spoke up now to retaliate against Rachels attempts to get her brother charged for abuse.
~~more @ link~~
https://homeschoolersanonymous.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/the-media-is-doing-exactly-what-rachel-dolezals-abusive-homeschooling-parents-want/
All of these facts do not in anyway excuse Rachel's actions, but it does illuminate just how complicated the story is. Childhood abuse fractures the victims, how twisted for the parents to then point to Rachel and say that she is untrustworthy when, if these reports of child abuse are true, the parents are responsible for making Rachel "untrustworthy".
For all of the harm that Rachel's actions have caused, they did not occur in a vacuum.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)"All of these facts do not in anyway excuse Rachel's actions, but it does illuminate just how complicated the story is. Childhood abuse fractures the victims, how twisted for the parents to then point to Rachel and say that she is untrustworthy when, if these reports of child abuse are true, the parents are responsible for making Rachel "untrustworthy". "
Great find and analysis.
This is all taking on a very Duggar-like vibe.
Now that I've seen Esther Dolezal's blog, something that strikes me is how she says her parents also described her as untrustworthy and she admits that she has been so. Why is it that the women raised in this family both have such severe 'trust' issues and both seem so damaged?
From Esther's blog:
http://itsthelife17.blogspot.com/2014/01/well-lets-just-say-this-new-year-is-not.html
The thing is, I really don't want to be tied to them in any way. I really don't. They are some of the most selfish and controlling people I have ever know. They're self-righteous, micro-managing, judgmental, and of course, "Christian", so of course that makes it all right or whatever. And I understand Rachel's reasons for making me leave, because if I didn't tell her about the phone, and being in contact with them that way, then what else didn't I tell her about? (the answer is nothing, I hadn't even been in contact with them until the phone incident) But how is she to know that I'm telling the truth about that, when I lied to her about being in contact with them in the first place?
The thing is, living with her made me a better person, something that five years in a "Christian" group home couldn't do.
~~~They had been locking me in my room since I was nine, first only at night, but then soon it was all day, for weeks on end. They even went so far as to take the electricity out of my room, because my 'mother' thought I was getting too pretty, and didn't want people to be able to see me through the window at night. Well that happened for about four years until I was 13. At which point, they shipped me off to Shiloh Christian Children's Ranch in Nowheresville Missouri. Well I continued to steal things while I was there, and actually, my Kleptomania got worse.
valerief
(53,235 posts)the reverse.
Why should anyone be mad at Rachel when there are so many killer Congress critters and killer cops to be angry with?
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Inside The Alleged Abuse Scandal That Destroyed The Dolezal Family
Rachel Dolezals brother is charged with sexually abusing their adopted sister a claim their parents vigorously denied to BuzzFeed News. Warning: This post contains graphic details of alleged sexual abuse.
Originally posted on Jun. 16, 2015, at 1:23 p.m.
Updated on Jun. 16, 2015, at 2:23 p.m.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/dolezal-alleged-abuse-scandal#.jtY9V8X9yG
I've noticed that the media is variously reporting that it was the brother or sister who was allegedly abused. I'm not sure why that is.
Person 2713
(3,263 posts)in the family going to trial( how coincidental ) but never saw particulars in the little media I check about the family other than parents' outing so thanks for this post and for filling in the blanks.
2 points of my own thought no one has to agree but
1 often in dysfunctional families when someone gets 'out' they choose to call others by family role names as they recieve support and friendship forming a new "family" for themselves
2 no wonder she seems F'd up and delusional ; in a way she was raised in fantasy of another sort
I see they ditched adoptees they didn't care for too, another Fundie fad
Response to suffragette (Original post)
ann--- This message was self-deleted by its author.
Person 2713
(3,263 posts)race I can see it happening
Also her pedophile brother states that the witness of his live birth at home , on his birth certificate , is listed as Jesus Christ ??
prayin4rain
(2,065 posts)And I had a new dress made of the FINEST self righteous indignation to wear. Oh well, next. ...