Raquel Evita Saraswati, the chief equity, inclusion, and culture officer of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker charity, resigned from her position on Monday following revelations that she had misrepresented herself as “Latinx” and Arabic.
Layne Mullett, a spokeswoman for AFSC, confirmed that Saraswati had departed the organization.
“Raquel Saraswati, who is facing public allegations that she misrepresented her background and past associations, has informed us of her intention to separate from the organization,” Mullett wrote in a statement to USA Today.
An open letter in early February circulated anonymously by concerned community members and staffers publicized allegations that Saraswati, born Rachael Elizabeth Seidel, was engaged in “cultural vulturism” by fabricating her identity.
Seidel is actually part German and Italian, and converted to Islam.
@joyce_afsc please fire “Raquel Evita Saraswati”. She is a racist, troubled, culture vulture who is an attention seeker that does not care about harming all the ethnicities, races and religions she stole. Please do not make AFSC complicit to her crimes. FIRE HER! pic.twitter.com/PTA2fuu1A8
— SailorMoonLight (@SailorHoe100) February 19, 2023
In the wake of the revelations, The Intercept confirmed through Saraswati’s mother, Carol Perone, that the entire thing was a farce. “I call her Rachael,” Perone said. “I don’t know why she’s doing what she’s doing.”
“I am as white as the driven snow and so is she,” Perone added.
Prominent documentarian Laila Al-Arian previously derided Saraswiti as the “Rachel Dolezal of the Muslim community.”
“This is not about “proving” one’s heritage but about lying, misrepresentation and taking opportunities from actual women of color,” Al-Arian tweeted in mid February.
Saraswati’s story resembles the infamous case of Dolezal, a white woman who identified as black for years. Dolezal worked her way up the rungs of a local NAACP chapter in Spokane, Wash., ultimately becoming president of the branch before her falsified identity was publicized.
“For me, how I feel is more powerful than how I was born. I mean that not in the sense of having some easy way out. This has been a lifelong journey. This is not something that I cash in, cash out, change up, do at a convenience level or to freak people out or to make people happy,” Dolezal told the Guardian in 2015.
“If somebody asked me how I identify, I identify as black. Nothing about whiteness describes who I am.”
Saraswati was previously named Woman of the Year by the National Organization for Women’s Philadelphia branch and serves on the city’s Commission for LGBT Affairs.
Saraswati was also an occasional guest speaker on television programs including Fox News and Al Jazeera.