Rachel Dolezal Still Identifies as Black, Blames Media for “Warping” Her Life Story

Rachel Dolezal has returned to the media spotlight, writing a book entitled In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World.

On Monday’s Today she said she felt the book was “forced upon” her because she wanted to tell the “whole story” of her life. Dolezal was widely criticized two years ago when it was discovered that she is Caucasian, although she had been claiming she was black and was the president of the Spokane, Washington chapter of the NAACP.

“My life story was really warped beyond recognition by a lot of the negative press in 2015,” said Dolezal. She said she still finds the media attention to be a “big challenge” and she changed her legal name because she was struggling to find work. “When applying for a job, people were just seeing ‘Rachel Dolezal’ and not paying attention to the wide-ranging experience and qualifications that I do have.”

Today‘s Savannah Guthrie asked her why she feels the need to identify as African-American and Dolezal corrected the anchor.

“I don’t identify as African-American, I identify as black,” she said, adding that in America there is a “black side” and a “white side” politically.

“I stand unapologetically on the black side. I stand with my own internal sense of self and my own values,” she added. “I stand with my sons, I stand with my sister, and I also stand really with the greater cause of challenging the myth of white supremacy.”

Guthrie challenged her on why she couldn’t just take these positions without saying she herself was black.

“I really prefer to just be exactly who I am,” responded Dolezal. “And black is really the closest race and culture category descriptive term that represents the essential essence of who I am.”

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