Rachel Dolezal, the white former NAACP Spokane chapter president who described herself as “transracial” because she identified as black, is back in the news, this time for a welfare fraud case. The state of Washington has accused Dolezal, who changed her name legally to Nkechi Diallo in 2016, of illegally receiving nearly $9,000 in welfare assistance, and a judge has finally set a trial date.
The state has accused Dolezal, 41, of illegally receiving $8,747 in food assistance and $100 in child care assistance during a period of over two years, from August 2015 to November 2017.
Judge Michelle Szambelan “is growing impatient with legal maneuverings,” Fox 28 Spokane reports. Saying that Dolezal’s attorney has had plenty of time to prepare for the trail, Judge Szambelan ordered on December 31 that Dolezal’s welfare fraud trial will begin on March 4.
Dolezal (under her changed name) was charged back in May with first-degree theft by welfare fraud, second-degree perjury and false verification of public assistance. At her arraignment in June, she pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
“Investigators allege that a few months after her parents exposed her as being white, Dolezal started falsifying her income to claim public assistance – stating that she was getting by on a few hundred dollars a month, given as gifts from friends,” the outlet reports.
The state began an investigation into the alleged fraud back in March 2017 after an investigator learned that she had published her autobiography, titled “In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World.” Court documents revealed that while she’d deposited $84,000 into her bank account, she failed to report it. She told investigators, however, that she’d “fully disclosed her information,” the Daily Mail reports.
Fox 28 reports that the case has “languished on the court docket” since her arrest, “with numerous rescheduling” since the June arraignment.
Dolezal made national headlines when she was “outed” for presenting herself as black despite having two white parents. After the information came to light, she resigned from the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, where she’d served as president from 2014 to 2015. Dolezal says she has not been able to keep steady employment since her “transracial” identity was revealed.
Her autobiography has been blasted by critics as an attempt to continue her victimhood narrative while enjoying “white privilege.” The Daily Mail, provides a few highlights from her book, including her comparison of being required to perform chores at home as a child to slavery and her first marriage breaking up because she was “too black” for her black husband.
“The Rachel Divide,” a documentary on Dolezal that was released by Netflix in April 2018, earned the company criticism for promoting her story. “Rachel Dolezal becomes a social phenomenon when she passes herself off as an African American and becomes the head of her local N.A.A.C.P. chapter,” the film’s official IMDB description reads. Despite the criticism, the film managed to earn a 72% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.