Racheal Dolezal: Becoming God’s Gift New Identity, New Stories for Her Memoir

In an interview with The Guardian earlier this year, Rachael Dolezal stated, “I’m sure it’s hard to make sense of [it] for people from outside, but for me it’s been like a consistent, organic process of coming into who I am. As long as I can remember, I saw myself as black. I was socially conditioned to discard that.”
Aside from serving as former NAACP President, the thirty-nine year-old Montana native made her claim to fame by living her life as an African American woman.
Dolezal has received backlash from both white America and the black community. Being an outcast is something that Dolezal has grown familiar with. Dolezal was born and raised in the rural mountains of Montana to Ruthanne and Larry.
Dolezal’s parents happened to be Little House on the Prairie-like white, Christian fundamentalists and listed their savior, Jesus Christ, as a witness to attest for Rachael’s birth on her legal birth certificate. Over the years, Rachael and her brother worked on the family estate together tending to the duties of a natural farmer.
“I felt like I was constantly having to atone for some unknown thing. Larry and Ruthanne would say I was possessed and exorcise my demons, because I was very creative and that was seen as sensual, which was of the devil. It seems like everything that came naturally, instinctively to me was wrong. That was literally beaten into us. I had to redeem myself,” she says with a light, mirthless laugh, “from being me. And I never felt good enough to be saved.” Rachael was abused, poor, and uneducated. She often times spent her time hiding in the gardens smearing mud onto her body as a façade to escape her brutal realities. Not only was Rachael uncomfortable at home, but in school as well. Rachael would choose black and brown crayons to create depictions of who she desperately desired to be. Rachael was the black sheep in Whitopia. Dolezal didn’t know love until her parents adopted three black children. Due to her own hardships in Whitopia, Rachael became more protective of her siblings over time. She taught them black history along with braiding their hair. Dolezal said that, “A funny thing happened. I began to feel even more connected to it myself. I began to see the world through black eyes.”
Since her parents told the media that Rachael was born and raised as a white woman, Dolezal’s positive reputation has diminished tremendously. Last year, Rachael Dolezal legally became Nkechi Diallo, which translates to “what God has given, bold.”
“Even the word ‘disguise’ has been put out there, but it just sounds very intentional and deceitful, I just want to feel beautiful, and this is how I feel beautiful,” stated Dolezal.
The mother of three has had trouble providing rent in previous months. Though she’s applied to reportedly “over a hundred jobs,” she is unable to obtain employment due to her radical lifestyle.
As a product, Dolezal is currently under the The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as the food stamp program) to feed her family. The only industries that have reached out to Dolezal have been reality television and pornography. In trying to publish her memoir “In Full Color”, thirty publishing houses have denied her request to print her story. “It’s not something that I can put on and take off anymore, like I said, 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. I think the world might be –but I’m not.”