Rachel Dolezal Presents Black Hair History, Describes Her Own As ‘Type Four Or Five’ [Video]

Rachel Dolezal, the president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, and a part-time professor in an Africana Studies program, recently lectured on the history of hair and its significance in the African-American experience at Eastern Washington University, according to this video on YouTube. Posted February 17, 2015, the video shows Rachel Dolezal giving a highly detailed lecture to EWU students focusing on everything from “hair history and privilege” to once-banned hairstyles among African-Americans.

The Inquisitr reported on the story sweeping the globe about Rachel Dolezal, a leader within the Spokane community representing and advocating for the African-American community, who, as it turns out, was born Caucasian. Rachel’s parents, as explained in the earlier article, are both white and claim that the activist’s ancestry is Swedish, German, and Czech. Dolezal claimed her ancestry is “white, black, and Native American” on her job application, according to the New York Times.

Dolezal begins her presentation at EWU with the highly acclaimed, often-quoted poem by Willi Coleman entitled “Among the Things That Use to Be.”

“Use to be Ya could learn a whole lot of stuff sitting in them beauty shop chairs Used to be Ya could meet a whole lot of other women sittin there along with hair frying spit flying and babies crying Use to be you could learn a whole lot about how to catch up with yourself and some other folks in your household. Lots more got taken care of than hair Cause in our mutual obvious dislike for nappiness we came together under the hot comb to share and share and share But now we walk heads high naps full of pride with not a backward glance at some of the beauty which use to be Cause with a natural there is no natural place for us to congregate to mull over our mutual discontent Beauty shops could have been a hell-of-a-place to ferment a……… revolution.”

In the video of her “Black is Beautiful” lecture, Dolezal claims the poem summed up her presentation to the EWU students. After reading Coleman’s written words, Dolezal says that for black women, hair represents much more than just an aesthetic or style. At one point Dolezal says, “… first we’re kind of gonna need to look at what happened to our hair styles here in America.”

Dolezal explains “the brown paper bag test,” which she told her students was something used during the reconstruction to determine eligibility for certain jobs and privileges based on “how white” a person could look. Dolezal then discusses hair types and texture, and what those traits meant for black people through American history. While Dolezal explains the eight types of black hair, which varied from straight to minimal wave on up to highly zigzagged and coiled hair, Rachel tells the class that her hair falls into the category of either type four or type five, which she implies would have made her more prone to persecution throughout early American times.

NAACP stands by #RachelDolezal, “Race is not a qualifying criteria” for #NAACP leadership: http://t.co/39Kqt3NyRt http://t.co/s1uflEiBBC

— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) June 12, 2015