SPOKANE, Wash., July 21 (UPI) — Weeks after Rachel Dolezal was ousted by her parents as a white woman, the former NAACP chapter president maintains her chosen racial identity.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the part-time college professor-turned-hairstylist says her affinity for black culture, her way of dress and lifestyle are not for show.
“It’s not a costume,” she told the magazine this month. “I don’t know spiritually and metaphysically how this goes, but I do know that from my earliest memories I have awareness and connection with the black experience, and that’s never left me.”
In June, Dolezal — born to white parents — publicly announced her identification as a black woman on the Today show. “I was drawing self portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon,” she said.
Dolezal told VF she’s not changing who she is. “It’s not something that I can put on and take off anymore,” she explained. “Like I said, I’ve had my years of confusion and wondering who I really [was] and why and how do I live my life and make sense of it all, but I’m not confused about that any longer. I think the world might be — but I’m not.”
Almost six weeks after her controversial response to the question of her true racial identity in an impromptu KXLY exclusive, the 37-year-old mother has been relieved of most of her paid and unpaid positions in Spokane.
“I’ve got to figure it out before Aug. 1,” she said of her post-limelight struggle, “because my last paycheck was like $1,800 in June… [I lost] friends and the jobs and the work — oh, my God — so much at the same time.”
Dolezal appears to take an academic stance when it comes to defending herself as a self-proclaimed black woman. “It’s taking my entire life to negotiate how to identify, and I’ve done a lot of research and a lot of studying,” she said. “I could have a long conversation, an academic conversation about that. I don’t know. I just feel like I didn’t mislead anybody; I didn’t deceive anybody.”
“If people feel misled or deceived, then sorry that they feel that way, but I believe that’s more due to their definition and construct of race in their own minds than it has to do with my integrity or honesty,” Dolezal continued.
“I wouldn’t say I’m African American, but I would say I’m black.”
After losing many of her connections and jobs amid the powerful public response to her identity, Dolezal now works as a hair stylist. The magazine reports that while at Eastern Washington University, she gave lectures on the history and politics of black hair and had developed a passion for tending to and styling it. Now, it is her and her son Franklin’s main source of income.
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