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. Feminist nonprofit 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 for conservative news outlets including FOX News and Newsmax. She appeared 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...
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