Rachel Dolezal, a former civil rights leader who claimed to be black and was vilified years ago after her parents revealed she was white, says she’s struggling to survive after becoming an international spectacle.
In a new interview ahead of her book release, the 40-year-old Washington woman spoke about what it was like to be propelled into public scrutiny and subjected to widespread mockery after the 2015 debacle. The book, titled In Full Color, is set to be published next week.
“I was presented as a con and a fraud and a liar,” Dolezal said in an interview with the Associated Press published Friday. “I think some of the treatment was pretty cruel.”
Dolezal led her local NAACP chapter but was fired after her parents exposed her true roots to local reporters. She said she hasn’t been able to find a job since.
“People might as well know the whole truth of my life story,'” she said. “My life is not a sound bite.”
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