Earlier today, the president of the local NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington made headlines when her parents said in an interview that their daughter has been pretending to be black for over 20 years. Rachel Dolezal insists that she is black, while the Internet has been going crazy trying to figure out why a white woman would choose to be black.
BuzzFeed News talked to Rachel's adopted brother, Ezra Dolezal, who said Rachel warned him not to out her as white as she planned her new life in Spokane.
"She just told me, 'Over here [in Spokane], I'm going to be considered black, and I have a black father. Don't blow my cover,'" Ezra told BuzzFeed.
In Ezra's words, Rachel did not offer "any logical explanation" for her transition. Ezra also told BuzzFeed that while Rachel gradually changed her outward appearance (he first noticed changes in her hair about six years ago), she suddenly chose to identify as black.
Ezra came across as dismissive of his sister, discrediting her narrative that she grew up in South Africa; Ezra said that only he and his other adopted siblings lived in South Africa with their parents. "She's never been to Africa in her entire life," said Ezra. He also doesn't believe that she's been diagnosed with cervical cancer, and believes that she actually wrote the "hate mail" that her family received.
"She made herself into a martyr on purpose for people to feel sorry for her and to help her," said Ezra.
The whole interview is worth reading—Ezra gave a inside look at their family life, and explained how Rachel came to legally adopt their other black adopted brother, Iziah, who she now refers to as her birth son.
