Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave When We Try To Choose Our Race

As Allahpundit would say, the story of one Rachel Dolezal is the stuff of comedy gold as this woman was born white and now thinks that she is so black, she heads up a local chapter of the NAACP.
The Miss Dolezal Story unraveled when a reporter for the local Spokane, Washington CBS television station, where she is the head of the local NAACP chapter, showed her a photo of her real parents and, well the dreckstorm took off from there.

Above is Rachel Dolezal, being interviewed by a local reporter. It is worth watching the short video for it appears that her whole world, such and pathetic as it is, is crashing down.
Here is the real Rachel Dolezal, looking pretty darn white to me.

And to buttress the case that Miss Dolezal is in fact and indeed white, here is a photo of her rather white parents.

They don't look to black either. In fact, according to the real dad (more on that later), their racial makeup is Czech, German, Swedish and maybe a trace of American Indian.
Again, no where does black, as in African, enter the picture, so to speak.
But hey, give it to Miss Dolezal. She made sure to cover the bases just in case. The photo below shows her with her very black "dad" that she went so far as to say was going to a local event in Spokane this past January.

The bottom line is that Miss Dolezal was born white but decided  at some point over a course of time that she so identified with black culture and the black community, she became black.
Miss Dolezal has so identified herself as black that she has shunned her very white, European-ancestry parents. They are rightfully saddened by her rejection.
Some further background is that Miss Dolezal is an adjunct professor of Africana studies at Eastern Washington university. As noted, she is the president of the Spokane NAACP. She has claimed as many as eight "hate" crimes directed against her and yet no suspect has ever been found.
I get that one who is driven by such a social justice warrior streak would want to be identified  with the cause. But why would she go to such lengths as to claim to be black? When you look at the two photos above there is no question that she is white as the Swedish snow and that she has spent some time in a tanning booth to maintain her darker skin tone and pass herself as black.
But another aspect is a bit of Stockholm Syndrome. Now Miss Dozael was not kidnapped and then identified with her kidnappers. But it is part of her psychosis in so far as identifying with the people she feels has been oppressed.
More than likely it is a case of the only way she could be taken seriously is for her to become black in every way including appearance. Although the NAACP welcomes white members, there is probably no way she could have worked her way up the ladder if she was white. But being black, then she would be taken seriously. She is totally down with the "struggle".
Although no one wants to say it, I will.
There are clearly some mental issues at play here.
I do not doubt Miss Dozael's sincerity in identifying with the struggle that many black Americans feel. But to want to pass one's self off in such the way she has done is what I do not get. When confronted about it, she ran away.
Now not too long ago in American history, there were many blacks that had such light skin they passed themselves off as white. It was out of necessity then, not something of wanting to be exotic. And in today's United States, despite some visible setbacks, on the whole black Americans are better off than they were in the era when they had to pass for white just to survive. In fact Miss Dozael is a success story in passing for black. She is a professor at a university and leader of a civil rights organization.
At some point, Miss Dozael will have the Oprah-like coming clean interview. That should be interesting. And it clearly is a tangled web to decide to choose one's race.