Albert Wilkerson, the black man who former NAACP Spokane chapter president Rachel Dolezal referred to as her father, is defending her.
“I am not going to throw her under the bus,” Wilkerson told PEOPLE on Wednesday. “There are bigger issues in the country we can be discussing. This is not the movie Imitation of Life, where [an actress] portrays herself as a black female. This is not a movie. I am not going to throw her under the bus.”
Wilkerson says he met Dolezal, who is accused of lying about her ethnicity, as a volunteer at the Human Rights Education Institute in Idaho where she served as education director from 2008 to 2010.
“We have worked together on educational and community things,” he said. “Primarily in education.”
Asked about his relationship with Dolezal, Wilkerson responded, “It has been a good acquaintance.”
Wilkerson’s comments come just days after a media firestorm has surrounded Dolezal who has been accused of pretending to be a black woman for years, while her parents, Larry and Ruthanne Dolezal, say she is white.
In an interview with NBC Nightly News Tuesday, Dolezal, who resigned from her position as head of the local NAACP on Monday, said there was no biological proof that Larry and Ruthanne, who are white, are her parents.
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SOURCE: PEOPLE.com, Christine Pelisek
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