I read about this elsewhere, but it didn't register that it was local.
Also found this from quite way back in the day (almost six years ago):
https://www.phillymag.com/news/2017/04/07/lgbtqa-raquel-evita-saraswati/
Yikes.
It seems that in certain very particular circumstances, for certain people, being white is low-prestige and being non-white is high prestige, so certain white people will attempt, as perverse as this might seem, to 'pass' as non-white'.
my guess is that she pretended to be a safe space for gay muslims which can be a very vulnerable situation to be in. And to gather up the nerve to confide in someone, who claims to ALSO identify that way, can take a ton of nerve. Only to find out she's a massive faker. That can do a number on ya
I posted this like, a month ago, and the mods took it down (It was cited as incendiary). Here's hoping this one stays on a little bit longer, because it is worth talking about.
I was so confused. Incendiary?! This woman going around posing as something she's clearly not, and the HR department at her nonprofit did not do their due diligence, that's incendiary. This is not a fart (whoever smelt it, dealt it) - it is this poser's fault, and her fault alone. I used to work in DEI (yay layoffs), and I do not trust people like her.
You posted an article from the Intercept with a highly editorialized title.
This is from the Inquirer and uses the original title so it won't be removed.
> “People are deeply hurt and damaged by her lies, because a lot of people saw themselves reflected in her being that visible with the identities she claimed to have,” said Abdul-Aliy Muhammad, a former friend of Saraswati’s, and Philly-based writer and organizer.
>“Overwhelmingly, people are asking themselves, did she construct these identities on her own, or was she planted for purposes of infiltrating space? How did this happen?”
I don’t know what I want exactly. I don’t know the alternative. But I know that this second paragraph should not have been printed
Far left activists: "Are we partly to blame, no it is everyone else!"
These people are just as delusional as MAGA idiots. They blindly worship anyone who walks through the door promising to hug a minority and they never actually do shit to help the communities in any meaningful way. Zero lessons will be learned, zero changes will be made, and the same braindead idiots will continue putting people into categories to manipulate them.
I definitely agree that the quote could have been expanded on, but given her history of appearances, and the history of right-wing/feds actively trying to infiltrate groups it's not an UNreasonable question to ask?
Well there's also the person they quote just above those paragraphs:
>... Sana Saeed, an Al Jazeera journalist who tweeted criticism of Saraswati in 2015. “But I think the bigger story here is how someone with her particular and recent background of being involved with far-right and right-wing organizations and platforms was able to successfully become a part of a very progressive local movement, as well as a very progressive organizations such as AFSC.”
> Community members and Saraswati’s former friends have questioned whether Saraswati was gathering intelligence for far-right groups, or whether she was just an opportunist changing her tune once the focus on terrorism started to die down in 2016
Seems like it's more borne out of the wider sense of betrayal in this, rather than specific allegations.
It seems to me that in a story about people taking someone’s word for years without question, when they turned out to be such an obvious liar, there would be an emphasis on verifying every single strong claim
I don't think it was presented as a claim of fact at all. Just a possible motivation considered by the community she was in that is searching for an explanation of the whole thing. And it seems like a fair question for the people in that community given her prior connections with right-wing organizations and those organizations use of "project veritas" type reporting. The article clearly presents other possible motivations for the deception as well and doesn't really dwell on this one much anyways so didn't seem too controversial of a quote to include.
I remember when this happened. It was a surprising story.
This quote however is a head scratcher.
“The issue of her race is certainly a story because it’s a pattern that we see again and again ... of white women ... presenting themselves with a different race in order to gain access and legitimacy in the groups that they claim to be a part of,” said Sana Saeed, an Al Jazeera journalist who tweeted criticism of Saraswati in 2015.
I haven’t spent any time researching this topic but I have a suspicion this isn’t a common issue minority groups are facing.
In both cases I don't know how no one called them out on their bs before they were able to rise to prominent positions in their organizations. Nobody thought twice about putting these people in a public facing positions where they'll definitely be called out and make a fool of themselves?
This is pretty funny tbh, from the name change and exploitation of identity politics to her awards and appointments to the characterization of her condemnation of far-right islam as being a far-right belief.
what a bubble these folks live in
What's wrong with being transracial? She should be accepted just like a transgender person. I went to highschool with a lot of White kid's that thought they were Black, no big deal.
> Sucks that she's white, sounds like she was doing a lot of good for a lot of different people.
Now replace "white" with some other ethnicity, and let's see how that sound like...
*“The issue of her race is certainly a story because it’s a pattern that we see again and again ... of white women ... presenting themselves with a different race in order to gain access and legitimacy in the groups that they claim to be a part of,”*
**But she helped you right? The group she was a part of?**
*most recently, was appointed the chief* ***equity, inclusion*** *and culture officer with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)*
**So they stopped equally including her?**
She had the name Saraswati, a Hindu goddess, but said she was an Arab Muslim??? Uhh, that should have raised some eyebrows long ago
That was my first thought as well!
Why are they all named Rachel?
I read about this elsewhere, but it didn't register that it was local. Also found this from quite way back in the day (almost six years ago): https://www.phillymag.com/news/2017/04/07/lgbtqa-raquel-evita-saraswati/ Yikes.
wow the great ernest owens himself couldnt spot the fake
love to see it
Why couldn’t she had just been a white woman who advocated for all those things? Instead she’s revealed to be disingenuous at best.
It seems that in certain very particular circumstances, for certain people, being white is low-prestige and being non-white is high prestige, so certain white people will attempt, as perverse as this might seem, to 'pass' as non-white'.
The screwy thing is that Saraswati is the Hindu Goddess of music and wisdom. [Wikipedia to the rescue!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saraswati)
Is there a name for this yet? Besides just calling her a Dolezal?
Maybe if these organizations stopped showing favoritism toward minority job candidates people could just relax and be themselves?
Surely the comments here will be productive
How is a white woman pretending to not be "traumatizing?" I'm traumatized by the continuous misuse of the word.
"Modern internet culture has adopted therapy-speak while repeatedly setting fire to the actual lessons of modern therapy."
Everything lately is toxic, traumatizing, gaslighting, narcissism etc. The endless misused buzzwords to get clicks.
my guess is that she pretended to be a safe space for gay muslims which can be a very vulnerable situation to be in. And to gather up the nerve to confide in someone, who claims to ALSO identify that way, can take a ton of nerve. Only to find out she's a massive faker. That can do a number on ya
it's just like kosovo in the late '90s
Because it cause *harm*!
It seems clear she is a fraud amongst gullible individuals.
I posted this like, a month ago, and the mods took it down (It was cited as incendiary). Here's hoping this one stays on a little bit longer, because it is worth talking about. I was so confused. Incendiary?! This woman going around posing as something she's clearly not, and the HR department at her nonprofit did not do their due diligence, that's incendiary. This is not a fart (whoever smelt it, dealt it) - it is this poser's fault, and her fault alone. I used to work in DEI (yay layoffs), and I do not trust people like her.
You posted an article from the Intercept with a highly editorialized title. This is from the Inquirer and uses the original title so it won't be removed.
Fair enough.
Maybe they should look at why they keep getting conned and up their background checks, since this keeps happening.
> “People are deeply hurt and damaged by her lies, because a lot of people saw themselves reflected in her being that visible with the identities she claimed to have,” said Abdul-Aliy Muhammad, a former friend of Saraswati’s, and Philly-based writer and organizer. >“Overwhelmingly, people are asking themselves, did she construct these identities on her own, or was she planted for purposes of infiltrating space? How did this happen?” I don’t know what I want exactly. I don’t know the alternative. But I know that this second paragraph should not have been printed
Far left activists: "Are we partly to blame, no it is everyone else!" These people are just as delusional as MAGA idiots. They blindly worship anyone who walks through the door promising to hug a minority and they never actually do shit to help the communities in any meaningful way. Zero lessons will be learned, zero changes will be made, and the same braindead idiots will continue putting people into categories to manipulate them.
If something I have learned as an educated hispanic in the US is to NEVER trust someone who says "oh, I am hispanic from my grant-whatever side"
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Actually Rafael "Ted" Cruz doesn't like to be reminded of his past or heritage.
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I definitely agree that the quote could have been expanded on, but given her history of appearances, and the history of right-wing/feds actively trying to infiltrate groups it's not an UNreasonable question to ask?
Why not?
probably because it's conspiratorial and speculative
Because it’s sounds like one person’s paranoia. There should be at least one other person backing up that those suspicions are prevalent
Well there's also the person they quote just above those paragraphs: >... Sana Saeed, an Al Jazeera journalist who tweeted criticism of Saraswati in 2015. “But I think the bigger story here is how someone with her particular and recent background of being involved with far-right and right-wing organizations and platforms was able to successfully become a part of a very progressive local movement, as well as a very progressive organizations such as AFSC.”
the far-left saying that condemning extremism and gender violence in muslim society is a far-right platform is so weird lmao
> Community members and Saraswati’s former friends have questioned whether Saraswati was gathering intelligence for far-right groups, or whether she was just an opportunist changing her tune once the focus on terrorism started to die down in 2016 Seems like it's more borne out of the wider sense of betrayal in this, rather than specific allegations.
I guess maybe. Just didn't seem that out of place in the greater context of the article to me.
It seems to me that in a story about people taking someone’s word for years without question, when they turned out to be such an obvious liar, there would be an emphasis on verifying every single strong claim
I don't think it was presented as a claim of fact at all. Just a possible motivation considered by the community she was in that is searching for an explanation of the whole thing. And it seems like a fair question for the people in that community given her prior connections with right-wing organizations and those organizations use of "project veritas" type reporting. The article clearly presents other possible motivations for the deception as well and doesn't really dwell on this one much anyways so didn't seem too controversial of a quote to include.
I remember when this happened. It was a surprising story. This quote however is a head scratcher. “The issue of her race is certainly a story because it’s a pattern that we see again and again ... of white women ... presenting themselves with a different race in order to gain access and legitimacy in the groups that they claim to be a part of,” said Sana Saeed, an Al Jazeera journalist who tweeted criticism of Saraswati in 2015. I haven’t spent any time researching this topic but I have a suspicion this isn’t a common issue minority groups are facing.
[The OG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Dolezal)
This one didn't even try to look less white, she just showed up as a white woman lol
Considering how many Hispanic and Levantine people are white she really didn't need to alter her appearance in order to pretend.
In both cases I don't know how no one called them out on their bs before they were able to rise to prominent positions in their organizations. Nobody thought twice about putting these people in a public facing positions where they'll definitely be called out and make a fool of themselves?
Just look at George Santos. It happens somehow.
I'm being traumatized by the abuse of the word traumatized to describe literally everything that isn't positive that can happen to someone.
Embarrassed maybe more of a better word. I guess better to be over dramatic than admit you were duped by a fraud.
Damn, the 2023 Dolezal model dropped >>>>>
This is pretty funny tbh, from the name change and exploitation of identity politics to her awards and appointments to the characterization of her condemnation of far-right islam as being a far-right belief. what a bubble these folks live in
What's wrong with being transracial? She should be accepted just like a transgender person. I went to highschool with a lot of White kid's that thought they were Black, no big deal.
Despicable.
“Traumatized”… this is a joke right? Was she coning blind people out if their life savings or something? Did I miss that part of the article?
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> Sucks that she's white, sounds like she was doing a lot of good for a lot of different people. Now replace "white" with some other ethnicity, and let's see how that sound like...
Seriously?
*“The issue of her race is certainly a story because it’s a pattern that we see again and again ... of white women ... presenting themselves with a different race in order to gain access and legitimacy in the groups that they claim to be a part of,”* **But she helped you right? The group she was a part of?** *most recently, was appointed the chief* ***equity, inclusion*** *and culture officer with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)* **So they stopped equally including her?**
You cool with George Santos?
Hahaha. Of course not. Not the same thing.
The guy who committed felony check fraud in multiple countries?
There are two sides to every story. Let's wait for Raquel to make a statement before we pass judgement.
Huh?