http://www.today.com/news/rachel-dolezal-speaks-today-show-matt-lauer-after-naacp-resignation-t26371
Rachel Dolezal breaks her silence on TODAY: 'I identify as black"
But given the fallout she has experienced since the controversy erupted last week, Dolezal said she would make the same choices if she had the chance.
"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 said. "I hope that that can drive at the core of definitions of race, ethnicity, culture, self determination, personal agency and, ultimately, empowerment."
Dolezal defended her identification as an African American against comparisons to putting on blackface, as some in her family have suggested, as well as many on social media.
"I have a huge issue with blackface. This is not some freak 'Birth of a Nation' mockery blackface performance," she said. "This is on a very real, connected level. How I've had to go there with the experience, not just a visible representation, but with the experience."
When asked about the changes in her physical appearance and whether she darkened her appearance, Dolezal responded: "I certainly don't stay out of the sun."
Dolezal's interview came less than a day after she resigned Monday from her position as president of the NAACP's Spokane, Washington, chapter amid the controversy surrounding her and claims she made about her race and upbringing.
The firestorm began last week after her white parents confirmed that Dolezal, 37, was their estranged daughter, whom they had not seen in years.
Her parents told TODAY that their daughter pretended to be black, claimed to be born in a teepee and made other false claims possibly as a way to "damage her biological family."
The couple also insisted they never planned to publicly shame their daughter but when a newspaper contacted them last week to confirm Rachel was their daughter, "we weren't going to lie, we told the truth," Lawrence Dolezal said. "Rachel is our birth daughter."
Rachel Dolezal breaks her silence on TODAY: 'I identify as black"
But given the fallout she has experienced since the controversy erupted last week, Dolezal said she would make the same choices if she had the chance.
"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 said. "I hope that that can drive at the core of definitions of race, ethnicity, culture, self determination, personal agency and, ultimately, empowerment."
Dolezal defended her identification as an African American against comparisons to putting on blackface, as some in her family have suggested, as well as many on social media.
"I have a huge issue with blackface. This is not some freak 'Birth of a Nation' mockery blackface performance," she said. "This is on a very real, connected level. How I've had to go there with the experience, not just a visible representation, but with the experience."
When asked about the changes in her physical appearance and whether she darkened her appearance, Dolezal responded: "I certainly don't stay out of the sun."
Dolezal's interview came less than a day after she resigned Monday from her position as president of the NAACP's Spokane, Washington, chapter amid the controversy surrounding her and claims she made about her race and upbringing.
The firestorm began last week after her white parents confirmed that Dolezal, 37, was their estranged daughter, whom they had not seen in years.
Her parents told TODAY that their daughter pretended to be black, claimed to be born in a teepee and made other false claims possibly as a way to "damage her biological family."
The couple also insisted they never planned to publicly shame their daughter but when a newspaper contacted them last week to confirm Rachel was their daughter, "we weren't going to lie, we told the truth," Lawrence Dolezal said. "Rachel is our birth daughter."
