--- title: Rachel Dolezal, White Privilege and Appropriating Culture description: Ijeoma Oluo writes that Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who passed as black for a decade, is the epitome of white privlege canonical: https://time.com/4748965/rachel-dolezal-stranger-interview/ author: Nate Hopper article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-20T19:59:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:25.170Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Ijeoma Oluo Interviews Rachel Dolezal for The Stranger og:description: Dolezal is the epitome of white privilege, writes Oluo og:url: https://time.com/4748965/rachel-dolezal-stranger-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01dcb5eb50e69e8a/6988703d0a4a225dd39c6f49/time-top-10-2015-rachel-dolezal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3280 og:image:height: 1845 og:image:alt: Rachel Dolezal og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ijeoma Oluo Interviews Rachel Dolezal for The Stranger twitter:description: Dolezal is the epitome of white privilege, writes Oluo twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01dcb5eb50e69e8a/6988703d0a4a225dd39c6f49/time-top-10-2015-rachel-dolezal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Ijeoma Oluo's Interview With Rachel Dolezal Reveals About White Privilege > Sponsored content. 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Readers select it, along with any of TIME's other newsletters, at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=89c6eb84-5f58-4e22-98db-9cd8545126c5&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). * TIME's newsletter network reaches more than 1.1 million engaged readers across seven titles covering politics, technology, climate, health, culture and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/subscribe?i=89c6eb84-5f58-4e22-98db-9cd8545126c5&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What is Inside TIME? Inside TIME is a twice-weekly newsletter written by TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs. It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. It reaches 430,000 subscribers with a 50.7% open rate as of August 2026. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Former Spokane NAACP President Admits She Was Born White [Watch (HLS stream): Former Spokane NAACP President Admits She Was Born White](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/CFAKFZ05.m3u8) (0:43)  _Published 2015-11-03. Rachel Dolezal admitted she was born white during an interview on "The Real" Monday._  by [Nate Hopper](https://time.com/author/nate-hopper/)  ## Nate Hopper Apr 20, 2017 7:59 PM UTC  Rachel Dolezal at her home in Spokane, Wash., on March 2, 2015. Rachel Dolezal at her home in Spokane, Wash., on March 2, 2015.Colin Mulvany—AP  by [Nate Hopper](https://time.com/author/nate-hopper/)  ## Nate Hopper Apr 20, 2017 7:59 PM UTC A new interview in [_The Stranger_](http://www.thestranger.com/features/2017/04/19/25082450/the-heart-of-whiteness-ijeoma-oluo-interviews-rachel-dolezal-the-white-woman-who-identifies-as-black) by the writer [Ijeoma Oluo](http://www.ijeomaoluo.com/) is making the viral rounds. Oluo, who regularly writes about race and culture and is the author of [_The Badass Feminist Coloring Book_](https://www.amazon.com/Badass-Feminist-Coloring-Book/dp/1517268656/?tag=timecom-20), spoke with Rachel Dolezal, even though Oluo had sworn off using Dolezal anymore as a lens for examining black women’s identity. Oluo wrote that she surprised herself by agreeing to the assignment. The conversation began with Dolezal asking whether Oluo had read [_In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/194464816X/?tag=timecom-20), the book Dolezal published in March as an examination of her own racial identity, after having been “outed” in 2015 for being white. Oluo had read the book. Dolezal, who maintains that she is black, seemed relieved. But if Dolezal felt that her book should explain all Oluo could want to know, she soon learned she was wrong. Oluo’s resulting[article](http://www.thestranger.com/features/2017/04/19/25082450/the-heart-of-whiteness-ijeoma-oluo-interviews-rachel-dolezal-the-white-woman-who-identifies-as-black) is a treatise on how white privilege has extended so far that white people feel as if they can call themselves black. Throughout the story, Oluo, who describes herself as “a giant black woman,” depicts Dolezal as almost vampiric in her need to stay in the shadows — Dolezal literally says she wishes to be photographed out of the sun so that her skin looks darker. Except she’s not a specter of fiction, she’s real. More revealing than the sun, though, are Oluo’s expositions of how Dolezal’s understandings of race are misinformed, and so commonly held that they’ve become clichés. Oluo writes: “You can be extremely light-skinned and still be black, but you cannot be extremely or even moderately dark-skinned and be treated as white — ever.” She writes that “passing” as black out of “inspiration” is far from equal to passing as white for survival. Oluo comes to describe Dolezal’s story as “the ultimate ‘you can be anything’ success story of white America. Another branch of manifest destiny.” She later writes: --- > “” --- In this, Oluo finds comfort: “Maybe now that I’ve seen the unoriginality of it all, even with my sister’s name that she has claimed as her own, she will haunt me no more and simply blend into the rest of white supremacy that I battle every day.” [The full article](http://www.thestranger.com/features/2017/04/19/25082450/the-heart-of-whiteness-ijeoma-oluo-interviews-rachel-dolezal-the-white-woman-who-identifies-as-black) is a must-read. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4748965/rachel-dolezal-stranger-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4748965/rachel-dolezal-stranger-interview/"},"headline":"What Ijeoma Oluo's Interview With Rachel Dolezal Reveals About White Privilege","datePublished":"2017-04-20T19:59:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:54:25.170Z","description":"Ijeoma Oluo writes that Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who passed as black for a decade, is the epitome of white privlege","url":"https://time.com/4748965/rachel-dolezal-stranger-interview/","keywords":["Race"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01dcb5eb50e69e8a/6988703d0a4a225dd39c6f49/time-top-10-2015-rachel-dolezal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nate Hopper","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nate-hopper/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01dcb5eb50e69e8a/6988703d0a4a225dd39c6f49/time-top-10-2015-rachel-dolezal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Rachel Dolezal","caption":"Rachel Dolezal, president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, poses for a photo in her Spokane, Wash. home on March 2, 2015.","creditText":"Colin Mulvany—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/race/","name":"Race"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4748965/rachel-dolezal-stranger-interview/","name":"What Ijeoma Oluo's Interview With Rachel Dolezal Reveals About White Privilege"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Former Spokane NAACP President Admits She Was Born White","description":"Rachel Dolezal admitted she was born white during an interview on \"The Real\" Monday.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/CFAKFZ05/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-11-03T00:27:52.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/CFAKFZ05.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4748965/rachel-dolezal-stranger-interview/","duration":"PT43S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4748965/rachel-dolezal-stranger-interview/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```