Fam don't be so dismissive it's not trivial bs. And I really wish people would stop saying this woman fought in the trenches and has done more for the black community than most. As far as I've read she ran the NAACP for five years she wasn't organizing the march on Selma or doing years in jail for her political views on discrimination. She had a high salary and a coushy position in an area that wasn't in desperate need of advocates from what I've read.
Also I really love how the Huffington Post addressed her pretending to be black
Transracial identity is a concept that allows white people to indulge in blackness as a commodity, without having to actually engage with every facet of what being black entails -- discrimination, marginalization, oppression, and so on. It plays into racial stereotypes, and perpetuates the false idea that it is possible to "feel" a race. As a white woman, Dolezal retains her privilege; she can take out the box braids and strip off the self-tanner and navigate the world without the stigma tied to actually being black. Her connection to racial oppression is something she has complete control over, a costume she can put on -- and take off -- as she pleases.
Perhaps the most unfortunate thing about the Dolezal story is that she has operated in activist spaces, and has consistently expressed a desire to actually help the advancement of black people. But as Twitter user @MoreAndAgain pointed out last night, Dolezal could have gone to Howard, taught African studies, and been a member of the NAACP without actively trying to imply through self-tanner and curly wigs that she was black. (The NAACP's statement, released this afternoon declaring that "one’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership," backs this assertion up.)
If Dolezal had lived her life as a visibly white ally, it would have been a powerful statement. Instead, she chose to actively lie about her identity, betraying the trust she had built within black activist spaces. There is the possibility, of course, that Dolezal's behavior goes far beyond mere white cluelessness and white appropriation, into the territory of mental illness. However, until she comments publicly, the drive behind her behavior remains a disturbing mystery.