National office of NAACP stands behind Rachel Dolezal

The national office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is standing behind Rachel Dolezal, the embattled Spokane chapter leader under fire for representing herself as a black woman and using that status to gain prominence when her family claims she is white. ”One’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership,” wrote Michelle Nealy, a spokeswoman for the national chapter in Baltimore, Maryland. ”For 106 years, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has held a long and proud tradition of receiving support from people of all faiths, races, colors and creeds,” she wrote in a statement Friday morning. ”NAACP Spokane Washington Branch President Rachel Dolezal is enduring a legal issue with her family, and we respect her privacy in this matter.” Dolezal, meanwhile, hasn’t been available for comment today, but posted on her Facebook page that she had a “heart to heart” with the local NAACP executive committee Thursday night “and will be addressing the Spokane NAACP membership and all my friends soon.”