The dust has settled since it came out that Rachel Dolezal has been pretending to be black for over a decade. Now, the former NAACP chapter president reveals that because of the public scrutiny, she has lost her job and most of her friends!
The 37-year-old not only lost her position as the president of the Spokane, Washington chapter of the NAACP, she was also relieved of her part-time teaching job at Eastern Washington University! Dolezal said:
“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 ├óΓé¼ΓÇ£ oh, my God ├óΓé¼ΓÇ£ so much at the same time.”
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Despite the great loss, the activist is still saying that she identifies as black, elaborating:
“It’s not a costume. 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 ├óΓé¼ΓÇ£ but I’m not.”
Dolezal also asserts that she doesn’t think she ever mislead anyone, even though she identified a black friend as her father on Facebook. She continued:
“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.”
Now, Rachel is focusing on her future. She reveals she has been making money by styling black hair, and that her ex-husband is considering changing their custody agreement to let her leave the Spokane area.
But the former educator isn’t done telling her story. In fact, she’s interested in writing a book about her life and identification as a black woman!
We bet we’ll be hearing more from Dolezal soon enough!
[Image via Justin Bishop/Vanity Fair.]
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