I am confused what the hullabaloo is about. Dolezal chooses to identify with the ethnicity of her children and ex-husband.

Before sharing some NAACP history, let me share: I have friends of various ethnicities. I refer to my own family as the “rainbow coalition,” so I have had to explain to several nonblacks that it’s not necessary they pretend to be black when they are around black people.

When in relationships with people of different cultures, we often take on their persona. Whites working in other countries duplicate indigenous hairstyles, clothes, learn their language; in essence, identify with that culture. I find white women who date or marry black men often adopt a black persona. Black women with white men are sometimes said to be “acting white.” Perhaps they do so to be accepted by the male’s family and friends.

The NAACP was founded Feb. 12, 1909, on Lincoln’s birthday. It is the oldest, largest and most recognized grass-roots civil rights organization, with more than half a million members around the world, partly formed in response to the continuing horrific practice of lynching, and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, Ill.

Appalled at the violence committed against blacks, a group of 60 white liberals, including Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard, both descendants of abolitionists, along with William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscowitz, called seven blacks to a meeting to discuss racial justice. Among the seven blacks were W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Mary McLeod Bethune and Mary Church Terrell.

There were dedicated whites who worked diligently for civil rights. Lest we forget: Many whites died for the cause. I ask those attacking Dolezal: When have you worked for or donated to your passionate cause? Do you want to have an opinion about who does the work? Then, put your money and works where your opinions are.

I have not heard that Dolezal sabotaged the NAACP, quite the contrary. Further, she attended Howard, a black college, where Charles Hamilton Houston, founding president of the NAACP, known as the “Moses of the Civil Rights Movement,” was once dean. She works closely with “Black Lives Matter” and other human rights groups.

I wish Dolezal the best, with the hope she continues the good fight for civil and human rights.