Rachel Dolezal, the former Spokane, Washington, NAACP chapter leader who was exposed in 2015 for falsely presenting herself as Black, says she wants to sit down for dinner with Hannah Gann, a Philadelphia teacher and activist recently accused of misrepresenting her own background as Palestinian.
Dolezal, who now goes by Nkechi Diallo and runs a sex coaching practice, told The Post that Gann’s activism shouldn’t be dismissed because of questions about her identity.
“If she identifies as Palestinian or Jewish or white or blue or green or whatever, is she doing good work? Is she making a difference?” Diallo said. “People in activist causes have all different kinds of personal lives.”
Diallo added that public figures are often judged too harshly once a single disputed claim surfaces. “But if somebody says something we don’t agree with, or they say something that’s not my truth, we flatten it into everything they’ve ever done is now not valid,” she said.
Gann, 34, taught at The Workshop School in Philadelphia and became known for leading anti-Israel protests in the city’s public schools. She was forced to acknowledge Monday that she is a “white woman of significant privilege and wealth” after two far-left groups in Philadelphia raised questions about her background.
Gann grew up in a $1.8 million home in Falls Church, Virginia, one of the wealthiest suburbs in the country. Her father, Hal Gann, is a tax attorney and Yale Law School graduate; her mother, Susan Gann, is a Democratic donor. Friends who spoke with the Philadelphia Inquirer said Gann has relatives living in the West Bank.
Gann had claimed to be Palestinian and Tunisian, sometimes adopting what critics described as a “blaccent” in social media videos where she discussed racism and imperialism. She was also seen wearing heavy bronzer, hoop earrings and long acrylic nails. A mobile billboard parked outside The Workshop School had labeled her “Philadelphia’s Leading Antisemite.”
Diallo said she first heard about Gann when people began asking whether the two were related. She rejected the comparison, saying Gann’s situation more closely resembles that of former George Washington University associate professor Jessica Krug, who admitted to falsely claiming a Black identity and cited mental illness as a factor.
“Hannah Gann sounds more similar to Jessica Krug than me,” Diallo said.
Diallo said she would want to meet Gann and hear her side of the story before forming a judgment. “I would be interested in having a conversation with her, maybe over dinner, I would be the only person who wouldn’t tell anybody about that conversation,” she said, adding: “Girl, tell me your story. Headlines are saying one thing, how did you get to where you are and where do you go from here?”
Gann did not respond to a request for comment.
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