NEW YORK | The woman who resigned as head of a local NAACP branch after her parents said she was white said Tuesday that she started identifying as black around the age of 5, when she drew self-portraits with a brown crayon, and “takes exception” to the contention that she tried to deceive people.
Rachel Dolezal said Tuesday on NBC’S “Today” Show that some of the discussion about her has been “viciously inhumane.”
Dolezal carefully constructed a life as a black civil rights activist in the last decade in the inland Northwest.
She has resigned as president of the Spokane, Washington branch of the NAACP, lost her position as a part-time African studies instructor at a local university, lost her job as a freelance newspaper columnist and become the subject of a probe by the city Ethics Commission.
The furor has touched off national debate over racial identity and divided the NAACP itself.
Dolezal, a 37-year-old woman with a light brown complexion and dark curly hair, graduated from historically black Howard University and was married to a black man. For years, she publicly described herself as black and complained of being the victim of racial hatred in the heavily white region.
The uproar that led to her resignation began last week after Dolezal’s parents said their daughter is white with a trace of Native American heritage. They produced photos of her as a girl with fair skin and straight blond hair.
“I really don’t see why they’re in such a rush to whitewash some of the work I have done, who I am, how I have identified,” she said.
Asked when she started “deceiving people,” she replied, “I do take exception to that.”
Shown a photo of herself with a much lighter complexion in her youth, she said: “I certainly don’t stay out of the sun.” But she added that “I also don’t … put on black face as a performance.”
She said published depictions described her first as “transracial,” then “biracial,” then as “a black woman.”
“I never corrected that,” she conceded, adding that “it’s more complex than being true or false in that particular instance.”
With men thinking they are women, women who think they are men, and all the other diverse thinking, what possible difference does it make, except with all the prejudiced people in the world today. No matter how many laws are passed, how many judges twist words or look for nonexistent words in documents, to make their decisions on in a PC world, what she believes, or others believe does not effect me. I don’t select who I meet, talk to, etc. by such shallow and obvious prejudice. I am more concerned in what people have done, can do, or will do in future, and what effect that will have on my life, assets, property and economics. I have to say the last 6 years have been most damaging on all of that, of my 85 years. And I have disrespect for leaders of today, for their kowtowing and letting it happen. We had pretty solid standards and quality of life in past, even with some ‘bumps in the road’ like Carter and Clinton, but we survived. An Newt Gingrich led enough Republicans into office in 2nd term of Clinton, to cut his spending from WH to where he has bragged since of having balanced the budget. YEAH. I re-financed a 2nd loan on rental property down from 18% at start, to 15%, then to 9%, then to 7% during that 4 years period, and also cut payoff term from 9 years remaining to 5. So I say Hallelujah to New Gingrich, though the Republicans then threw him under the bus. I also led mother-in-law to lock in 18% interest in 5 year CD, which doubled her assets in that 4 year period. She lived to be 99, dying in 2003.
I KNOW THIS PRESIDENT HAS REAWAKENED OR BROUGHT TO THE SURFACE PREJUDICE LIKE NEVER BEFORE. And he was terrific salesman for gun manufacturers and sellers, with ammunition sales. We will need them in near future, with Jihadists born within our borders, criminals like never before, and prisons-jails releasing dangerous criminals due to expense, while we are flooded with illegal aliens from all countries. YEAH. If you like the USA, you can keep it. Should Barack not be saying that too?
She’s mental Frank. I watched the interview of her birth parents. They deny that she ever identified herself as black while living at home. They also said she didn’t choose a brown crayon to color her skin in a self portrait.
She obtained a full ride scholarship BECAUSE the university thought they were giving it to a black woman. When she arrived, they were shocked to see a white woman standing before them.
She’s a thief and that doesn’t bother you?
Not really, Ashley. With all the other problems on this planet, what people think they are is very low on my radar focus. How many people do you meet each day, that you look at them, and try to decide just what nationality, race, culture, gender, religion, or other of the devisive segments they may believe, belong to, or think they are? I meet people for what ever reason, and never question any of that. Now if someone does me dirt, I don’t immediately form a bias against all like that one. But I would have tendency to remember and not trust that one again. We have so many people walking streets or living in Aurora, Denver, or other sections of this metro area, who think they are something other than others do. Does it effect me, my checkbook, my savings, or my life. NOT MUCH.
I feel there is a problem within that family, that went viral with parents comments. But I do wonder just a bit, when her brother (or MSM said he was) was very black, and she says she is black, she lived as black, married a black, has 2 children I believe who are black, then just how black does she have to be, to satisfy and get the black women who lost their boyfriends to some white woman, have to be. She is not the first that black community labeled not black enough. Does that effect me. NOT MUCH THERE EITHER.
I know my immigrant grandparents (that wife and I found so far and could trace) came from Scotland, England, Wales, Germany, and within our melting pot USA, we have black, indian, white, brown, all in the family tree. Does that bother me. NO. My grandmother in WV with 4 sisters was raised by a black woman slave in her 60s at the time, when their mother died. She was transferred from the husbands family to them at that time, and lived to be 100 years old. Is buried in same cemetery in WV that her two owners are. Last of those sisters died about 10years ago, in Ohio. My grandmother was 15 when her mother died. I fully respect my family history, and one grandfather was impressed into southern army, went AWOL about 4-6 months later, when he joined Northern army as Corporal, and was Provost in 1865, at end of war, signing permits to let soldiers from both armies to come across lines, to visit families. He was postmaster near Keyser WV, and that original post office is a memorial building on side of highway 220, near Junction WV.