On Monday, Rachel Dolezal (yes, the Rachel Dolezal who pretends to be black), appeared on the Today Show to promote her new memoir, In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World.
During her interview with Savannah Guthrie, Dolezal, who has legally changed her name, claimed that she is not African American, but “black”:
GUTHRIE: “Why say that you are, in fact, a member of the African American community? I think that’s the discontent people still have. What’s your response? I’m sure you hear it all the time.”
DOLEZAL: “I don’t identify as African American, I identify as black. I am part of the Pan-African diaspora, and I definitely feel like in America, even though race is a social construct and we’ve acknowledged this in academia and in science, there still is a line drawn in the sand. There still are sides.
Politically, there’s a black side and a white side, and I stand unapologetically on the black side. I stand with my own internal sense of self, and my own values. I stand with my sons, I stand with my sister, and I also stand there really with the greater cause of challenging the myth of white supremacy.
…I really prefer to just be exactly who I am. And black is really the closest race and culture category descriptive term that represents the essential essence of who I am.”
“I don’t identify as African American, I identify as black,” said Rachel Dolezal to @SavannahGuthrie. https://t.co/dOAtGn96My
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 27, 2017
There are no words powerful enough to adequately mock Dolezal’s response. As such, this piece will run without commentary.
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