Rachel Dolezal, the former Spokane, Washington, NAACP chapter leader who became a national symbol of racial identity fraud after being exposed in 2015 as white, says she would like to sit down with Hannah Gann, the Philadelphia activist now facing similar accusations.
Gann, 34, a teacher at The Workshop School in Philadelphia and a fixture of the city’s activist scene, was pressed this week to admit she is a “white woman of significant privilege and wealth” after two local far-left groups raised questions about claims she had made about being black and Palestinian. Gann had led anti-Israel protests in Philadelphia public schools and often spoke in what critics described as a “blaccent” during social media videos addressing racism and imperialism.
Dolezal, who now goes by Nkechi Diallo and runs a sex coaching practice, told The Post she does not think Gann’s claimed identity should overshadow her activism.
“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 reaction tends to dismiss a person’s entire record the moment they are caught in a falsehood. “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.
Diallo, who was outed in 2015 for growing up white in Montana while presenting herself as black, said she would want to hear Gann’s account directly before forming judgments.
“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,” Diallo said, laughing. “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 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, and her mother, Susan Gann, is a Democratic donor. Friends who spoke to the Philadelphia Inquirer said Gann has relatives currently living in the West Bank.
Gann was previously named “Philadelphia’s Leading Antisemite” on a mobile billboard parked outside The Workshop School, where she taught. She was frequently seen wearing heavy bronzer, hoop earrings and long acrylic nails as part of what critics say was an effort to reinforce her claimed identity.
Diallo said she first heard about Gann when people began asking whether the two were related. She rejected any direct comparison between herself and Gann, instead likening the Philadelphia case to that of Jessica Krug, the former George Washington University associate professor who admitted to lying about being black and cited mental illness as a factor.
“Hannah Gann sounds more similar to Jessica Krug than me,” Diallo said.
Gann did not respond to a request for comment.
