16 Jun 2015

Rachel Dolezal: I identify as a black person

US civil rights activist Rachel Dolezal, who has been accused of falsely claiming she is African-American, says she has identified as a black person since she was five.

Ms Dolezal resigned on Monday as president of the Spokane chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, after it was revealed that her parents are white.

Speaking to NBC’s Today show (see video above), she said a major shift in her identity came when she was doing human rights work in Idaho and newspaper stories described her as transracial, biracial and black.

I was drawing self-portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon. Rachel Dolezal, recalling her childhood

She said: “I never corrected that because it’s more complex than being true or false in that particular instance.”

Ms Dolezal, 37, who grew up with adopted black siblings, said her own concept of her race began when she was five.

“I was drawing self-portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon and the black curly hair,” she said.

Read more: Rachel dolezal parents say 'black' rights leader is white

‘Identified as white’

Shown a photograph of herself as a teenager with fair skin and blonde hair in the TV interview, she said: “I would say that visibly she would be identified as white by people who see her.”

Ms Dolezal disagreed with critics who have said that by presenting herself as African-American, she was putting on a black-face performance, an outdated act in which white actors used make-up to portray black stereotypes.

“I have a huge issue with black face,” she said. “This is not some freak… mockery black-face performance. This is on a very real, connected level. I’ve actually had to go there with the experience.”

‘Culturally you’re black’

Ms Dolezal had represented Albert Wilkinson, a black man she worked with in Idaho, as her father, and she said they had a family-level connection, according to media reports.

“Albert Wilkinson is my dad,” she said. “Any man can be a father. Not every man can be a dad.”

Any man can be a father. Not every man can be a dad. Rachel Dolezal

She said her two sons, who are black, had been supportive of her identity.

“I actually was talking to one of my sons yesterday,” she said. “He said, ‘Mom, racially, you’re human and culturally you’re black.'”

Ms Dolezal once enrolled at historically black Howard University and later sued it for discriminating against her because she was white.