The former Spokane NAACP president addressed questions about her racial identity in an interview with the Today show.
In her first interview addressing the controversy over her racial identity, Rachel Dolezal on Tuesday told Today show host Matt Lauer that she identifies as black.
Dolezal, who resigned as the president of Spokane's NAACP chapter on Monday, said her "self-identification with the black experience" went back to her childhood. She said at the age of 5, "I would draw self-portraits with a brown crayon instead of the peach crayon. That was how I was portraying myself."
When shown a photo of herself at 16 with a fair complexion, straight blonde hair, and blue eyes, Dolezal said that the girl in the picture "would be identified as white visually by people who see her" and that she did not identify herself as African-American "in that picture, during that time."
When asked about her darkened skin tone, Dolezal said, "I certainly don't stay out of the sun."
She said her identification as a black woman "solidified" when she got full custody of her adopted black brother Izaiah Dolezal, who is now in high school.
"He said, 'You're my real mom,' and for that to be something that is plausible, I certainly can't be seen as white and be Izaiah's mom," Dolezal said.
She said that one of her sons told her, "Mom, racially you're human and culturally you're black." She said that her sons Izaiah and Franklin Moore — her son with her ex-husband — supported the way she identified. "We are the Three Musketeers," she said.
Addressing statements her birth parents, Ruthanne and Larry Dolezal, made in interviews, where they said she would have been more effective at her job as a civil rights activist had she been truthful about her race, Dolezal said, "I really don't see why they're in a rush to whitewash the work that I've done and who I am and how I've identified."
She also addressed questions about Albert Wilkerson Jr., the black man whom she calls her father. She said that she met Wilkerson in North Idaho and they "connected on an intimate level as family."
When asked about why she refused to acknowledge Larry Dolezal as her father, she said, "Albert Wilkerson is my dad. Any man can be a father but not every man can be a dad."
Dolezal said she sued Howard University for discriminating against her as a white woman, because "the reasons for my full tuition scholarships being removed as well as my teaching position were that other people needed opportunities and 'you probably have white relatives who can afford to help you with your tuition.' I thought that was an injustice."
Responding to criticism about putting on blackface, Dolezal said, "I have a huge issue with blackface. This is not some freak Birth of a Nation mockery blackface performance. This is on a very real, connected level, how I've actually had to go there with the experience and not just a visible representation."
Dolezal denied that she deceived people about her identity. "It's a little more complex than me identifying as black or answering a question of, 'Are you black or white?'" she said.
She admitted that she didn't correct several media reports that identified her as "transracial, biracial, light-skinned and black," because it was "more complex than being true or false in that particular instance."
Dolezal said that, in retrospect, she would have done a couple of interviews differently. "But overall my life has been of survival, and the decisions I made along the way, including my identification, have been to survive and carry forward my journey," she said.
While saying that the timing of the controversy was "shocking and unexpected," Dolezal said, "I did feel that at some point I would have to address the complexity of my identity."
However, she said, "I would make the same choices I made."
And In an interview with Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC, Rachel Dolezal said that for her entire life, her identity made her feel "very isolated."
Dolezal added that she lacked the "personal agency" when she was younger to articulate her identity, and added that "nobody got it."
She said she planned to process and publicly own the complexities of who she is after her children reached adulthood.
"But certainly, I wasn't expecting it to be thrust upon me right now," she said.
Rachel Dolezal: "I Identify As Black"
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