Rachel Dolezal made headlines in June 2015 when she was exposed for passing for being black even though she was born white from Caucasian parents. Up until then, she ran a successful chapter of the NAACP in Spokane, Washington. Most people know the acronym, NAACP, stands for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The organization is a civil rights group designed to support black Americans.
Since Dolezal's exposure
The 39-year-old former civil rights activist and former African studies instructor resigned from her job over the controversy of being white and working for a black organization.
Since then, Rachel has been keeping a low profile in Spokane while she is trying to rebuild her life. She has not had a full-time job since then. She lost most of her friends, and has been on the brink of homelessness.
The disgraced woman has changed her name to Nkechi Amare Diallo. However, she is using her birth name to publish her new Memoir, “In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black And White World” because more people know her by that name instead of by her new legal name.
Telling her side of the story
Dolezal did not back down when the news of her race came out. She is still refusing to claim the race she was born into no matter what people say. That includes her parents who came forward and publicly acknowledged that Rachel is their daughter.
Since they are white, then Rachel must also be white. The mocked woman insists that she had every right to say she is black because that's the race she identifies with, and she has lived the black experience.
In an interview on "The Real" on November 2, 2015, Dolezal publicly acknowledged for the first time since the controversy that she was biologically born white to white parents, but she identify as black.
Memoir
Dolezal shares in her new memoir what shaped her search for a new identity. She uses the term, "trans-Black" to describe her identity. She addresses some of the issues that she was questioned about back in 2015. The memoir was released by BenBella Books on March 28, 2017 after 30 other publishing companies turned it down.
The book is available on Amazon. Critics have described it as "bizarre."
The take away from the memoir is that Rachel Dolezal wants people to know that she is comfortable in her skin. It just so happens to be white, while her heart and everything she stands for is black.
