Dolezal: Black Identity Is Not a Costume

The former NAACP official who was outed as white by her estranged parents in June defended her self-proclaimed black identity in a Vanity Fair interview published Sunday. Rachel Dolezal told the magazine that her black identity is “not a costume” and is “not something that I can put on and take off anymore.” Dolezal resigned as the president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington, and was asked to step down from a police oversight committee following revelations that she had been posing as black for years. “I’ve had my years of confusion and wondering who I really [was] and why and how do I live my life and make sense of it all, but I’m not confused about that any longer,” she said. “I think the world might be—but I’m not.”