Rachel Dolezal, former Spokane president of the NAACP has been the center of scrutiny the past week for falsely identifying herself as black.

Born pale faced and freckled with blonde hair to two Caucasian parents of Czech ancestry, Dolezal's current appearance would not validate that. Spotted rocking traditionally cultural African American hairstyles, Dolezal's skin is also darker, depicting the appearance of a biracial or light-skinned black woman.

This fiasco has sparked an interesting discussion about race, ethnicity and identity. Naysayers, including Dolezal's parents are outraged -- claiming her accusations to be deceptive, racially offensive, self-hating and a stark representation of cultural appropriation. Supporters including the NACCP have stood behind her, asking that people assess her work ethic and not her race. Others compared her warped identity to the likes of Caitlyn Jenner, suggesting that ethnicity and race is just as malleable as gender.

Among her supporters, one in particular stands out, actress and human rights activist Whoopi Goldberg. When asked by Nicolle Wallace, her fellow host on The View, as an African American commentator if she's mad [about Dolezal's depicting herself as black] Goldberg said, "I'm not mad at anyone... As far as I'm concerned, if she wants to be black, she can be black." She then went on to say, "Everything that comes with that [being a black woman] she is prepared for."

Hmm. Is Goldberg suggesting that Rachel's work as a civil rights activist qualifies her to deal with the racism, sexism and classism the average black woman faces? For instance, let's tackle the prison industry complex. African American women are the fastest growing population in prison. According to the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia, between 2012 and 2013, the imprisonment rate for black females was twice (113 per 100,000) the rate of white females (51 per 100,000). Moreover, violence against black women is often overlooked. While the numbers for lifetime rate for rape against white women total at 17.7 percent and the lifetime rate for rape against black women are just a percent higher at 18.8 percent; The Bureau of Justice Statistics states that for every black woman that reports a rape, at least 15 do not.

Let's take Celie, the character Goldberg won a Golden Globe Award for in The Color Purple. Although fictional, Celie's story represented the lives of many black women in the Deep South. Uneducated, a victim of sexual and verbal abuse, Celie's story was paramount in depicting the life of a black woman during that time. Can Dolezal, who has a Bachelor and Master's Degree, relate to Celie's story? According to the National Center of Education Statistics, in 2010 72.9 percent of white women received Bachelor's degrees while 10.3 percent of black women received the same four-year degree. Dolezal says she identifies as Black because of her relation to the black experience yet she filed a lawsuit against her alma mater Howard University, a reputable Historically Black College University for racial discrimination because she is white.

Let's not forget when she was outed by family members for lying about her identity, she quickly resigned from her position with the NAACP. Since she adopted stereotypical features of a black woman; skin color, hairstyles, why not adopt the strong black woman "All my life I had to fight", attitude and stand strong in her truth as a black woman, especially since the NAACP supported her?

Once under scrutiny, she backed down.

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