Rachel Dolezal riveted the country earlier this year when she fumbled for an answer during an interview about whether or not her father is an African-American, but at least one celebrity thought the entire story was “ridiculous”.
Chelsea Handler, former host of Chelsea Lately, said at the Television Critics Association on Tuesday that she had fun watching the story play out, no matter how silly she thought the coverage of it was.
“Rachel Dolezal from the NAACP was a very joyful story for me to watch. I thought that was beyond ridiculous and the commentary on it was beyond ridiculous,” Handler said.
Dolezal–who was born to white parents–says she does not identify as white and has been passionate about black culture and rights for years. But many of those around her, including her co-workers, felt deceived by her once the story broke about her racial background, and she stepped down from her position as president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP. When asked in a recent interview about the timeline on when she started misleading people, Dolezal did not back down.
“I do take exception to that because it’s a little more complex than me identifying as black, or answering a question of, ‘Are you black or white?’ I definitely am not white. Nothing about being white describes who I am,” Dolezal said.
Rachel Dolezal’s story is a long, complicated one that has mystified the media as they try to straighten out her many comments about her family and the harassment she claims to have been a victim of based on her perceived race. Her family continues to deny and dispute much of her story, including tales of childhood abuse. According to an interview she gave to Eastern Washington University, Rachel claimed she was “born in a tepee, that her mother and stepfather had beaten her and her siblings, that “they would punish us by skin complexion,” and that they lived for a time in South Africa”. Her family says none of this is the truth.