Quotes from Rachel Dolezal

I've never been fully transparent or an open book, even to those you'd call close friends.

From a very young age, I felt a spiritual, visceral, instinctual connection with 'black is beautiful.' Just the black experience and wanting to celebrate that. And I didn't know how to articulate that as a young child.

I was presented as a con and a fraud and a liar. I think some of the treatment was pretty cruel.

Hopefully, even if I am judged or there's confusion, anger, about how I identify, I hope that people can understand that family is fluid.

I stand on the black side of issues, philosophically, politically, socially, and for me to not check that box, I felt like, would be some sort of betrayal of not only who I am but also the community I affiliate with.

If people feel misled or deceived, then sorry that they feel that way, but I believe that's more due to their definition and construct of race in their own minds than it is to my integrity or honesty, because I wouldn't say I'm African American, but I would say I'm black, and there's a difference in those terms.

My life is not a sound bite.

I did work and bought all my own clothes and shoes since I was 9 years old. That's not a typical American childhood life.

I'm more black than I am white. That's the accurate answer from my truth.

I think that it is too common for white feminists to say, 'We want some diversity. Come join our movement about gender, but we want you to check the class and race at the door.' And you can't undo that braid of race, class, and gender: all three intersect with each other, so it's important for more education to be done about that.

My husband didn't want me to wear any black hairstyles. Nicole Kidman was his standard of beauty.

As long as I can remember, I saw myself as black. I was socially conditioned to discard that. It was an all-white town. I was very unhappy. I felt like I was constantly self-sabotaging in order to conform to religion, culture dynamics. I was censoring myself. I was shutting down inside.

I think there's definitely a stereotype of white privilege, and that stereotype gets expanded to mean rich, not oppressed, not suffering, et cetera. And yes, it's a misperception.

In order to really move toward what people really think of as some sort of Utopian post-racial society or somehow to really challenge the racial hierarchy, we're going to have to allow some fluidity.

I stand by my work on behalf of the citizens of Spokane to further justice and promote civilian oversight of law enforcement.

I don't think you can do something wrong with your identity if you're living in your authenticity.

I felt very isolated with my identity virtually my entire life, that nobody really got it and that I didn't really have the personal agency to express it.