After coming out as bisexual, Rachel Dolezal 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.”
“I’ve always identified racially as human, but have found more of a home in black culture, in the black community,” Dolezal added.
“After not having a job for six years, I’ve had to create my own job and find ways to provide for my children,” Dolezal revealed to Tamron. Since losing her job as a professor of Africana Studies at Eastern Washington, Dolezal has not been able to find employment. “I started with applying for all 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. I wasn’t able to get any of those jobs either.” Instead, she’s said that she tries to maintain a living by braiding hair, writing grants for marginalized communities, painting, and pep talks.
“When there’s so much negativity on just a Google Search or Wikipedia is even inaccurate about your life story, and you have to direct people to the only place my true story lives is in my book In Full Color. People aren’t going to go seek out my book if they’re just looking for an employee,” Rachel said.
Rachel has revamped her resume and is looking to apply to teaching jobs next fall. Do you think Dolezal can bounce back and get a job?