Culture
Rachel Dolezal in Vanity Fair interview : “I wouldn’t say I’m African American, but I would say I’m Black”
Rachel Dolezal discusses her identity and that she planned to deceive no one in creating it.
Following the June 2015 revelation that the then NAACP Spokane, Washington Chapter President, Rachel Dolezal who was born a Caucasian woman was presenting herself as a Black woman, she sat down with magazine Vanity Fair to discuss her experience it in.
Rachel Dolezal In Vanity Fair
The article entitled, Rachel Dolezal True Lies, Rachel stands by her views of herself and is most certainly not confused about who she is.
Rachel says she simultaneously has defended the identity she has carefully crafted and insists that she deceived no one in creating it.
“It’s not a costume,” she says. “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. It’s not something that I can put on and take off anymore. 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.
Dolezal also said that she doesn’t feel she lied about who she is:
It’s taken my entire life to negotiate how to identify, and I’ve done a lot of research and a lot of studying. 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 is to my integrity or honesty, because I wouldn’t say I’m African American, but I would say I’m black, and there’s a difference in those terms.
Her parents
After her estranged parents went to media outlets to oust their daughter for lying about her identity, the 37-year-old was relieved of her of positions, paid and unpaid, in Spokane.
She resigned from her position with the NAACP, and was asked to step down from a police oversight commission. Eastern Washington University, where she had a beloved part-time teaching job in the school’s Africana-studies program, did not renew her contract.
“I’ve got to figure it out before August 1, because my last paycheck was like $1,800 in June,” she says. “[I lost] friends and the jobs and the work and—oh, my God—so much at the same time.”
And through all of this, Dolezal claims that her identity as black is non-negotiable. This is who she feels like she is.
Read the full interview on Vanity Fair.
Discover more from Unheard Voices Magazine
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
-
Black And Missing1 week ago
Morehouse College student Kyle Coleman found dead after Virginia crash
-
Culture4 days ago
Brooklyn community rallies behind beloved shoe shiner Byron Neal known as “The Light on the Corner”
-
Black And Missing6 days ago
Search continues for missing 10-year-old Arkansas girl swept away in Florida waters
-
Beauty & Fashion7 days ago
Young mother dies after cosmetic surgery complications
-
Culture2 weeks ago
Exclusive : South Carolina sneak preview of ‘40 ACRES’ at Saloma Acres in Blythewood
-
Social Justice20 hours ago
Family of Jabari Peoples demands answers after fatal police ehooting in Alabama
-
Crime & Justice2 weeks ago
One dead after shooting during concert on Long Branch, New Jersey beach
-
Crime & Justice1 week ago
Outrage grows over brutal attack on teen at California concert