The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization dedicated to global peace and social justice, has recently been in the spotlight after the revelation that their Chief Equity, Inclusion, and Culture Officer, Raquel Evita Saraswati, had been misrepresenting her ethnic background for years.
Saraswati, 39, had been claiming to be a woman of color, specifically of Latino, South Asian, and Arab descent. However, in an interview with The Intercept, Saraswati’s mother, Carol Perone, said her daughter is actually of British, German, and Italian descent.
“I’m as White as the driven snow and so is she,” Carol Perone said, adding, “I don’t know why she’s doing what she’s doing…She’s chosen to live a lie, and I find that very, very sad.”
Perone shared photos with The Intercept that show Saraswati as a child with a lighter complexion as compared to her bronzed complexion in more recent photographs.
Oskar Pierre Castro, a human resources official who helped AFSC hire Saraswati, said the activist presented herself as a “queer, Muslim, multiethnic woman”.
Layne Mullett, a spokesperson for the AFSC, released a statement to The Intercept to address the issue surrounding Saraswati’s identity and said the organization does not require any employee to “prove” their heritage as a condition of their employment.
Some members of the organization have expressed concerns that Saraswati may have a hidden political agenda and is seeking to undermine the group. They point to her past appearances on right-wing TV shows after 9/11 where she was described as a “moderate” Muslim critical of Islamic extremism.
Saraswati has not responded to requests for comment from The Intercept, but wrote a statement on Facebook saying she is taking the time to answer “in a way that is most helpful and thorough”.
@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
The AFSC has not taken any action in response to the claims against Saraswati, but the controversy has caused some to question her leadership and the organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. It remains to be seen how the AFSC will address this issue and if Saraswati will be held accountable for misrepresenting her identity.
