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Mother Says Diversity Executive Is A Fake Person of Color, Really A White Woman Named Rachel

Mother Says Diversity Executive Is A Fake Person of Color, Really A White Woman Named Rachel

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Raquel Evita Saraswati, reportedly born a white woman named Rachel Elizabeth Seidel, claims to be a Muslim LGBTQ activist and of Latina, South Asian, and Arab descent. (Photo: YouTube screenshot)

There is another race imposter named Rachel. Like the infamous Rachel Dolezal, who claimed to be a Black person and resigned as an NAACP chapter leader after her parents outed her to the media that she was white in 2015, a diversity executive at a major organization has been passing as a woman of color. According to her mother, Raquel Evita Saraswati is really a white woman named Rachel Elizabeth Seidel.

She’s “white as the driven snow,” the activist’s mother told The Intercept.

Seidel has risen to prominence in the U.S. social justice movement, even hired as a chief equity, inclusion, and culture officer with a left-wing activist group, RT reported.

She claimed to be Raquel Evita Saraswati, a Muslim LGBTQ activist and of Latina, South Asian, and Arab descent. But, according to her mother, Carole Perone, the senior staffer at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is white.

Perone told The Intercept she and Seidel’s deceased father are both of European descent.

“I’m German and British, and her father was Calabrese Italian,” Perone said. “She’s chosen to live a lie, and I find that very, very sad.”

“I’m as white as the driven snow, and so is she,” added Perone, who shared photographs of her daughter with the media outlet but requested that they not be published. The Intercept also reported that another relative confirmed that Saraswati is white.

Perone also shared with The Intercept her Ancestry.com profile and a photo of Seidel’s biological father.

Seidel has served on mayoral commissions on LGBT affairs in Philadelphia, according to her Linkedin profile.

The American Friends Service Committee is a well-known Quaker organization that expresses progressive values and social justice advocacy in the U.S. and abroad. Many members have also wondered about Seidel’s true identity, calling into question her background and heritage.

Seidel didn’t respond to The Intercept’s requests for comment.

According to Perone, her daughter converted to Islam in high school and that at some point she began to portray herself as having a different ethnic identity.

Following the Dolezal scandal erupted, some activists and writers noted Saraswati’s name change from Seidel and suggested that she was the “Raquel Dolezal” of the Muslim community, The Intercept reported.

Dolezal is a former college instructor and activist known for identifying as a transracial Black woman until her parents outed her in 2015. In addition to claiming black ancestry, she also claimed Native American descent. She is also a former National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter president.

Raquel Evita Saraswati, reportedly born a white woman named Rachel Elizabeth Seidel, claims to be a Muslim LGBTQ activist and of Latina, South Asian, and Arab descent. (Photo: YouTube screenshot, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXY3bDF4rx8)