but it's outrageously offensive that people here @org and other places are legitimately trying to give her a pass, as if any good that she might have done makes this okay.
You've got to be kidding. If that is your idea of "outrageously offensive", then you are likely to find life quite stressful. Yes, I give her a pass, for the following reasons:
(a) I have not seen much to the effect that her "fraud" has harmed anybody. Until I do, I will consider it harmless "fraud".
(b) There are plenty of "genuinely black" people who are actively harming black people. In America, you can look at drugs, homicide, etc. In Africa---and you can't get them any blacker, in any sense---they are finishing each other like nobody's business. Against that must be weighed against whatever good she may have done.
(c) I have absolutely no issue with whites who wish to pretend to be black if they are doing genuine good for black people. In fact, I wish we would have some more. At the end of the day, we should think of creating a society in which colour does not matter and one is judged solely on how they relate to their fellow human being and what contribution they make to making like better for others.
So, yes; the good she did makes it OK in my book. And here's why: if she did good, then it is still good, even if we suddenly found out that she is really a Martian.