Former NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal finally addressed her critics Tuesday, saying her darkened complexion stems from soaking up the sun, while pushing back against accusations of using blackface.
In an interview with “Today” show host Matt Lauer, Dolezal said, when pressed over her darker complexion, that she “certainly” doesn’t “stay out of the sun,” adding that she doesn’t “put on blackface as a performance.”
MATT LAUER: You’ve changed your appearance. your complexion appears darker than it did in the photos of you as a young lady. Have you done something to darken your complexion?
RACHEL DOLEZAL: I certainly don’t stay out of the sun, you know. And I also don’t, as some of the critics have said, put on blackface as a performance.
LAUER: Let me address that, because some people have said the way you have changed your opinion is akin to putting on blackface. Jonathan Capehart wrote in The Washington Post, “blackface remains highly racist no matter how down with the cause a white person is.” Do you understand what he means by that?
DOLEZAL: Absolutely. Absolutely.
LAUER: Do you agree with it?
DOLEZAL: I have a huge issue with blackface. This is not some freak ‘Birth of a Nation’ mockery blackface performance. This is on a very real connected level how I have actually had to go there with the experience.
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