Rachel Dolezal Still Maintains She Be Identified As Black – Says She Never Deceived Anybody But Lost Plenty

Rachel Dolezal, who faced national criticism for misrepresenting herself as a “black” person, still strongly maintains that she is indeed who she has always believed to have been – an African American woman.

Speaking over a month after her parents revealed Rachel Dolezal was born white, the civil rights activist and artist declared that she still identifies herself as black. She shared publicly during an interview with Vanity Fair that the technicality of her race has left her in turmoil as she watched her world crumble around her.

“I’ve got to figure it out before August 1, because my last paycheck was like $1,800 in June. [I lost] friends and the jobs and the work and – oh, my God – so much at the same time.”

After the devastating revelation by her parents that Rachel Dolezal was not of African American descent, she lost her position as the president of the Spokane, Washington chapter of the NAACP, as well as a part-time teaching job at Eastern Washington University. Though she resigned from the presidency post, Dolezal maintained a calm composure as she fielded worldwide accusations of being a “blackface” while being interviewed on NBC Today. Below is what Dolzal said in rebutting such accusations.

“I don’t, as some of the critics have said, put on blackface as a performance. I have a huge issue with blackface. This is not some freak, Birth of a Nation mockery blackface performance. This is on a very real, connected level how I’ve actually had to go there with the experience, not just a visual representation. I identify as black.”

Rachel Dolezal may have been born white, but the activist has been raised by an African American family. She even married and later divorced an African American man shared her biological parents.

Interestingly, Rachel Dolezal may not have categorically stated she was ‘black’. The Spokane city hall has indicated that Dolezal listed her ethnicity as a mix of white, black, Native American and a number of others in her application to the office of the police ombudsman commission, reported The Guardian.

Fortunately, NAACP has lent their support to Rachel Dolezal categorically stating racial identity has never been a “qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership.”

Clarifying her position over the issue, Dolezal said:

“I was actually identified when I was doing human rights work in north Idaho as first trans-racial. Subsequent news stories identified me as biracial and finally as black. I never corrected that.”

Rachel Dolezal may have strongly stirred issues surrounding racial identity, politics and appropriation, but unfortunately, it has caused a huge devastation in her life, she shared.

[Image Credit | Rachel Dolezal Facebook]