In Rachel Dolezal‘s new memoir, In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World, the former NAACP leader said she believed there was “some similarity” between her and Caitlyn Jenner. Dolezal told CNN‘s Michael Smerconish,
“Well, I think a lot of people have drawn that parallel…
And I want to be careful because certainly every category of our identity is, you know, with its own unique circumstances and challenges. But for sure, there is some similarity in terms of harmonizing the outer appearance with the inner feeling, in terms of stigmatized identities. Some people will forever see me as my birth category and nothing further. And the same with Caitlyn.”
Dolezal was ousted as a white woman in 2015, after posing as a black NAACP branch president for years.
“Actually, race has been, to some extent, less biological than gender. We’ve evolved into understanding that gender is not binary, it’s not even biological. But what strikes me as so odd is that race isn’t biological, either…I believe that the word transracial has become socially useful in describing racial fluidity and identity.”
When asked by Smerconish on Saturday what she would say today if someone asked her the same question, she said her answer would be different,
“If I would have had time to really, you know, discuss my identity, I probably would have described a more complex label; pan-African, pro-black, bisexual, mother, artist, activist, but I think the question, Are you African-American? — I haven’t identified as African-American. I’ve identified as black. And black is a culture, a philosophy, a political and social view.“
I get part of that. I do. You are who you say you are. (Photos, Getty; via NY Post)