It’s been six years since Rachel Dolezal was blasted for impersonating a Black woman for four years, and she told in an interview that she’s still unable to find work.
After coming out as bisexual, Dolezal, 43 is back to reveal more about her life since being outed as a white woman posing to be black, in 2015. The former president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington joined the Tamron Hall Show to discuss her name becoming a “problematic identity” and the struggles of unemployment following the controversy.
Dolezal begins the interview by describing what’s it like to essentially see her name in headlines whenever a person seems to be appropriating black culture. “What I really wish is that people could see me more for who I am than the what,” Dolezal told Tamron in the interview, which you can watch below.
Dolezal goes on to claim her story is not one of “pretending, faking, or changing,” but instead she describes it as “finding a home culturally.”
Dolezal begins the interview by describing what’s it like to essentially see her name in headlines whenever a person seems to be appropriating black culture.
“Well, it is really tough, you know, to relive that every day and every week, as you said,” Dolezal said regarding the fact her name is associated with the stories about her pretending to be black. “Whatever the case, if somebody’s name comes up attached to what people feel is a problematic identity, then I’m hashtagged, and there are memes, you know, Kamala Dolezal, all these kind of things that have been created that come my way and I’m tagged in.”
Dolezal, who taught Africana studies at Eastern Washington University until being outed as a white woman, then said she wishes more people could see her “more for who I am than the what.”
Describing herself as a mother, an activist, and an artist, Dolezal said:
“When it comes to race and identity, I’ve always identified racially as human, but have found more of a home in black culture, in the black community.”
“And that hasn’t changed,” Dolezal added. “I’m still the same person I was in May of 2015, I’m still doing the work, I’m still pressing forward, but it has been really tough for sure.”
After discussing the fallout from the revelation that she is, in fact, not black, Dolezal explained how she has since struggled to find employment.
“I started with applying for all of the things I was qualified for, and after interviews and getting turned down, I even applied to jobs that didn’t even require degrees, being a maid at a hotel, working at a casino,” Dolezal told Hall.
“I wasn’t able to get any of those jobs either,” she added.
Dolezal complained that she faced a disadvantage in the job market because much of the information available about her online is allegedly “inaccurate,” for which reason she plugged her autobiography,
“In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World,” which was panned by critics. “Like, the only place that my true story lives is in my book,” she said.
“I think that people, you know, aren’t going to go seek out my book if they’re just looking for an employee, so it’s been tough for sure, but I have not given up.”
Watch the video below for more details:
Source: AWM
