- Raquel Saraswati resigned as equity and inclusion officer after allegations she misrepresented her race
- Rachel Dolezal, George Santos are among other public figures accused of misrepresenting heritage
- Advocates fear erosion of trust, cite damage to communities of color
Raquel Evita Saraswati was a name well-known to well-meaning people in Philadelphia.
She was a bronze-hued, Jersey-born spokesperson for Muslim and LGBTQ causes in fashionable hijabs, an adviser and confidant to local nonprofits. The Philadelphia NOW chapter named her a Woman of the Year. Local awards ceremony Rad Girls declared her “Rad Girl of the Year.” She served on the city’s Mayor’s Commission on LGBT Affairs.
And until this week, she was the chief equity and inclusion officer for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker-founded service organization based in Philadelphia that supports social justice causes all over the country and world.
But that role came to an abrupt end, amid a blizzard of controversy.
According to allegations in an open letter circulated on Feb. 10 by a “group of individuals who care deeply about AFSC”, Saraswati was living a lie.
The meticulously footnoted letter accused her of “cultural vulturism,” alleging that Saraswati, formerly known as Rachel or Raquel Seidel, misrepresented herself as having Arab, Latinx and South Asian heritage.
Saraswati had also served as a commentator about Muslim extremism for conservative news outlets including FOX News and Newsmax. She spoke about the difficulties Muslim women face in a documentary by media company Clarion Project, listed until 2020 as an anti-Muslim group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
After the social media and tabloid furor that followed, Saraswati will “separate” from AFSC, confirmed spokesperson Layne Mullett in an email to USA TODAY Network this week.
“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.
The AFSC supported Saraswati in leaving the organization, Mullett wrote, calling the decision “difficult” and “deeply personal.”
Raquel Saraswati's background called into question
Saraswati appears to have deleted or locked most social media and did not respond to a request for comment.
But the open letter, and subsequent reporting by nonprofit news site The Intercept, cited genealogical research and interviews with family members to assert that Saraswati was of German, British and Calabrese Italian heritage. The letter also documents early photographs in which Saraswati appears to have a lighter skin tone.
USA TODAY Network also contacted members of Saraswati’s immediate family, who confirmed European heritage but otherwise declined to comment.
Saraswati’s case echoes other prominent examples of public figures accused of misrepresenting their heritage. This includes New York U.S. Rep. George Santos’ false claims of being a descendant of Holocaust survivors and former Spokane, Washington, NAACP chapter president Rachel Dolezal (now Nkechi Diallo), who claims African American identity.
More:NY Rep. George Santos, who lied about being Jewish, recognizes Auschwitz anniversary
More:Rachel Dolezal: 'I identify as black'
In previous newspaper articles going back to the mid-2000s, Saraswati was identified as belonging to Arab and Latinx or South Asian heritage.
In a 2004 piece about LGBTQ weddings, the Boston Globe reported that Saraswati, then known as Seidel, planned a wedding that respected her “Arab and Latin traditions.” Two years later, an article in India New England News, about Indian American couples, documented Saraswati’s difficulty finding appropriate Indian decor.
Human resources professional Oskar Henry Castro, who participated in AFSC's hiring committee for Saraswati, told The Intercept that Saraswati had represented herself as “multiethnic” and as “a queer person of color, who happens to be a Muslim” in hiring interviews he saw.
“I definitely feel conned. … I feel deceived,” he told The Intercept.
Some fear Saraswati scandal will damage communities of color
Coverage in tabloids mostly focused attention on personal or family drama. But other commentators worry about damage to people of color or to the mission of organizations like AFSC.
“Will the organization investigate why a member of its most senior leadership has so profoundly eroded trust among the people of color on staff and in the communities that the organization serves?” reads the open letter, citing a Quaker commitment to integrity.
“This is not about ‘proving’ one’s heritage but about lying, misrepresentation and taking opportunities from actual women of color,” tweeted documentarian Laila Al-Arian, who referred to Saraswati as a “Rachel Dolezal of the Muslim community.”
Journalist Sana Saeed, who called attention to Saraswati’s heritage as early as 2015, tweeted that focusing on the salacious aspects of Saraswati’s story elides the “harm she’s done — especially the years she worked as essentially a ‘native informant’ with anti-Muslim orgs & platforms.”
So far, Saraswati has been publicly silent.
“AFSC has given Raquel the opportunity to address the allegations against her, and Raquel stands by her identity,” read a statement to The Intercept from AFSC’s Mullett, prior to Saraswati’s resignation.
A broadly circulated screenshot of a social media post, purportedly from Saraswati, promised she would provide answers when she was able.
But for now, her Twitter account is locked. Her Facebook and Instagram pages appear to have been taken offline. A TikTok account under her name, with 1,200 followers, consists of two cat videos and a speech by addiction expert Gabor Maté.
“Trauma creates coping mechanisms,” begins the video.
“If you get the message that you are not good enough, that you are not worthy enough,” it continues, “then you might spend the rest of your life trying to prove that you are.”
Matthew Korfhage is a Philadelphia-based reporter for USA TODAY Network. Follow him onTwitter@matthewkorfhage or emailmkorfhage@gannett.com.
This story has been updated to correct the number of followers for @raquelevita on TikTok.
