Rachel Dolezal speaks for the first time after stepping down as the NAACP chapter president.
Former NAACP chapter president, Rachel Dolezal, who was accused of pretending to be black, talks to Matt Lauer in an exclusive interview at the Today's to set the record right.
Critics been saying that she is pretending to be black, but Rachel insisted that she never deceived anyone. "I was drawing self-portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon, and black curly hair," she said during the interview.
For her, the dialogue had cost her recently but she said "in a very sort of viciously inhumane way come out of the woodwork, the discussion is really about what it is to be human. I hope that that can drive at the core of definitions of race, ethnicity, culture, self-determination, personal agency and, ultimately, empowerment."
In Dolezal defense for her identity she is claiming to be an African American, she admitted that she had some issue with blackface. "This is not some freak 'Birth of a Nation' mockery blackface performance," she also said that she is for real and she got to where she is because of experience not just visible representation.
Dolezal has been known to represent herself even on her official documents that she is black. But last week, Dolezal's parents told reporters that their daughter is "Caucasian by birth," with Czech, Swedish, German and a trace of Native American ancestry, NBC news reports.
After the news, reports have been spreading that she will be stepping down from her position for being accused of pretending to be black. She wrote on her Facebook page that whatever happens, she will continue the battle for human rights and will do everything she can to help.
She is even scheduled on Monday to discuss the issue at a chapter meeting but it was postponed.
