Rachel insists on identifying herself as black though she was born white as claiming, 'Human's population originating in Africa is everybody.'
- Nov 3, 2015
AceShowbiz - Rachel Dolezal insists on identifying herself as black though she was born white. In a new interview with "The Real" airing on Monday, November 2, the 37-year-old civil rights activist defended her stance as saying, "Sometimes how we feel is more powerful than how we're born."
Of how Rachel defined blackness, she said, "Blackness can be defined as philosophical, cultural, biological, a lot of different things for a lot of different people. I do think you have to walk the walk if that's how you are." When co-host Tamar Braxton asked her if she "walked the walk" of someone who was black, Rachel replied, "Absolutely."
The show's co-hosts looked unimpressed by Rachel's answer about walking the walk of black people. Co-host Loni Love then said, "Let me tell you something: I'm black. I can't be you. I can't reverse myself. Let's check you, Rachel. If the police stopped me, you could throw that off and show that nice fine hair up under, and you might get away. I may not. I may not even make in the jail."
Of why Rachel didn't disclose information about her biological birth race to some institutions, she said there was no obligation to do that. "I have described a little bit on the timeline, for example, [in] Howard University, there's no race ... on the application. I didn't fill out because there's no boxes to check," Rachel said.
The former instructor of Africana studies at Eastern Washington University was then asked what race she would check if there were boxes on the application. Rachel tended to evade the question by insisting that the application in Howard University didn't have such boxes. After the co-hosts clarified their question, Rachel said, "I'd check white and black because we all have human origins in the continent of Africa... Human's population originating in Africa is everybody."
