He still sees himself as a black person – and wants to play a role in encouraging racial equality.
But Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who claimed to be African-American in 2015, sparked a national scandal, ignoring the embarrassing years afterward, insisting she could help inspire fairer treatment of minorities.
“Race I identify as human, but culturally I identify as black,” Dolezal said in a telephone interview from his home in Spokane, Washington, where he made his living by braiding hair and selling his art.
“I really wish we could rework vocabulary. That’s part of challenging the racing world view. “
Dolezal, a single mother who changed her official name to Nkechi Amare Diallo in 2017 but left with Rachel socially, said she had been energized by a push for justice after George Floyd’s death.
But he acknowledged that the Black Lives Matter movement in his area had rejected his offer to get involved, even though he said he had good relations with individual protesters and members of the black community.
“Very much, most of the people I hear are black or mixed or non-white in some way and many people say this is your moment, you are justified,” Dolezal said. “I have received hundreds of messages. Most are very positive. “
He praised the sympathetic 2018 documentary, “The Rachel Divide,” for helping to change people’s minds about him.
“Netflix documentaries do help some people understand some context and background. I have received many apologies from people who have joined in on social media, “he said.
In June 2015, Dolezal claimed to be biracial when serving as president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane when a local news reporter revealed that his parents, Ruthanne and Lawrence Dolezal from Montana, were both white.
The news broke the same month that Caitlyn Jenner was celebrated for her transition, but Dolezal lost her NAACP position and teaching work at Eastern Washington University. He struggled financially, he said, relying on friends to get money.
The sale of his memoir in 2018, “In Full Color,” helped, but he was later accused of welfare fraud for not reporting $ 84,000 in income to the state Department of Social Services and Health.
These days, Dolezal confuses political advocacy – he has undermined police, reparations and damaged “racist” monuments – with promoting his art, including a work he called “Truth be Told,” which featured white statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Franklin Roosevelt, covered in red paint.
Slaver, Rapist, Murderer, Racist, are the respective statements.
“It’s in a shadow box frame in four inches,” said Dolezal, who is hawking an effort for $ 1,000.
“All of my art is for sale. This is a very bad deal compared to bananas stuck to the wall and sold for [$120,000]” he said with a laugh.
His family included his son, Franklin, 17, and Izaiah, 26, a foster brother to whom he obtained official guardianship. He also has a four-year-old child with autism. He said he planned to immediately move to Tucson to be with Franklin, a student at the University of Arizona.
There, he hoped for a new beginning.
“I have been waiting to move for 15 years,” he said. “It’s been a long time.”
