Former Spokane NAACP executive Rachel Dolezal spent much of her adult life doing a kind of impression of herself in order to pass as black. On Monday night’s “Late Night With Seth Myers,” comic actor Maya Rudolph, who actually comes from a mixed-race background, debuted her impression of Dolezal.

Of course, this parody gives Dolezal’s story another moment of network TV coverage, but satire has clearly become one of the go-to methods of managing (or masking) our country’s cultural and political issues.

So, does Rudolph pull it off? This is the woman who sent up Donatella Versace, another confounding public persona, to good effect, so she’s up for the job, and she comes equipped with a special prop to help her get into character.

Whether this little number performs any other function except to provide fodder for a nimble comedian is another story. Decide for yourself in the clip below (YouTube via Jezebel):

–Posted by Kasia Anderson

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#comedy#passing#rachel dolezal#racism#saturday night live#snl#video