It’s been a year since the world was force-fed the racial antics, orange tan and kinky wig of Rachel Dolezal. How can we forget the white woman who posed as a black woman and worked her way through an NAACP chapter in Spokane, Wash.?
Not only did Dolezal lie about her race to her colleagues, but if it wasn’t for her white parents outing her, she would probably still be acting in her own version of Imitation of Life.
On the one-year anniversary of her racial unmasking, Dolezal sat down with the Today show to discuss how her life has changed over the last year.
“What has the last year been like for you?” Savannah Guthrie asked.
“It was challenging but also wonderful in some ways. I welcomed a new son into the word. He’s perfect and precious. It’s been some work to rebuild and get back on track on life,” Dolezal responded.
Dolezal also said it’s been hard for her to be out in public because of her “notoriety.” She noted that “a lot of people take pictures, and it’s hard to go to the grocery store.”
Dolezal previously stated that she’s more black than she is white, even though she was born to two white parents. And now she’s going to write a book discussing racial identification.
“Well, a lot of people have reached out to me. Which has been another bright spot about this. I’ve heard a lot of stories from people about their lives being caught in the boundaries of race. Because race is such a contentious issue, it’s really important to think through a lot of those topics and questions people have. Why do we still want to go back to the world of separate races?” Dolezal asked.
Dolezal said she didn’t have any regrets about lying about being black. Guthrie asked her if she felt that she should have been more up front about her race. But Dolezal danced around the question.
“It’s a complex issue; how do you sum up a whole life of coming into who you are with a sound bite?” Dolezel replied.
On top of the book, Dolezal says, she’s also done a TED talk that should be online soon. As for her next steps, Dolezal says that she just wants to get back to working on race and social-justice issues.