Rachel Dolezal, former NAACP chapter president, tells Matt Lauer: ‘I identify as black’

Rachel Dolezal finally sat down for an interview for the first time since Thursday night’s explosive revelation from her parents that she is not African-American. Hours after resigning from her position as NAACP Spokane chapter president, she spoke to The Today Show’s Matt Lauer this morning.

At the start of the interview, Dolezal told Lauer that she was surprised by the timing of the revelations, which came Thursday, when her parents told local Washington newspapers that she was not really black. From that point on, Dolezal remained a trending topic on social media, sparking debates on race. On Monday, Dolezal resigned from the NAACP Spokane, but insisted that she would still fight for human rights.

When Lauer asked if she is an “African-American woman,” Dolezal paused before stating, “I identify as black.”

Lauer then showed her a picture of herself in her teens and asked if that was an African-American woman. This time, she said that people would visibly see her as white and at that time, she was not identifying herself as African-American.

“I was drawing self-portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon, and black curly hair,” she said, but added that she did not deceive anyone, despite what people online have said. “I do take exception to that because it's a little more complex than me identifying as black or answering a question of, are you black or white?”

As she did in her statement on Monday, Dolezal tried to define the controversy in her terms. She sees it as a question about what it means to be human, beyond race or culture.

“As much as this discussion has somewhat been at my expense recently, and in a very sort of viciously inhumane way come out of the woodwork, the discussion is really about what it is to be human,” she told Lauer. “I hope that that can drive at the core of definitions of race, ethnicity, culture, self determination, personal agency and, ultimately, empowerment.”

Doleal also insisted that changing her appearance was not like using blackface, so when asked how her skin became darkened, she replied, “I certainly don't stay out of the sun.” She also suggested that she had to change her appearance after she gained custody of one of her adopted brothers, Isiah.

"He said, 'You're my real mom.' And he's in high school, and for that to be something that is plausible, I certainly can't be seen as white and be Isiah's mom," Dolezal said.

Here’s Lauer’s entire interview with Dolezal:

screenshot from Today.com video