It turns out the Arab-Latina feminist who worked as the American Friends Services Committee’s senior equity, inclusion and culture leader is actually a white girl.
Raquel Evita Saraswati, the woman who claimed to be an Arab-Latina Muslim for more than 10 years is actually a white girl named Rachel, according to her own mother.
“I call her Rachel,” the activist’s mother, Carol Perone told The Intercept. “I don’t know why she’s doing what she’s doing.”
“I’m German and British, and her father was Calabrese Italian,” her mother said. “She’s chosen to live a lie, and I find that very, very sad.”
The mother said, “I’m as white as the driven snow and so is she,” adding that her daughter’s real complexion is much lighter than how she appears in her more recent photos.
The Intercept reported:
MEMBERS OF THE American Friends Service Committee, a prominent Quaker organization known for its progressive values and social justice advocacy in the U.S. and abroad, have raised an alarm about a woman holding a leadership position within the organization who they say has misrepresented her ethnic background for years and who they fear may be working on behalf of groups seeking to undermine their organization.
Raquel Evita Saraswati, a Muslim activist who for years has encouraged people to believe that she is a woman of color, including Latina as well as of South Asian and Arab descent, is the AFSC’s chief equity, inclusion, and culture officer, a senior position that gives her access to the files of dozens of the organization’s staff and volunteers. But Saraswati, who was born Rachel Elizabeth Seidel, is not a person of color, according to her mother, Carol Perone.