US / African Americans Rachel Dolezal Comes Clean About Racial Background Former NAACP leader appears on 'The Real' By Neal Colgrass, Newser Staff Posted Nov 2, 2015 7:05 PM CST Copied In this July 24, 2009, file photo, Rachel Dolezal, a leader of the Human Rights Education Institute, stands in front of a mural she painted at the institute's offices in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. (AP Photo/Nicholas K. Geranios, File) Rachel Dolezal—the former NAACP leader in Spokane, Washington, who was outed as white in June—admitted today what the world pretty much knew: she was born white. "I acknowledge that I was biologically born white to white parents, but I identify as black," she said on the daytime talk show The Real, Mashable reports. "Why not give me the right to identify, how I identify? I think we're all entitled to be exactly who we are and to identify as such." Her admission came after repeated questions from the show's hosts; it also sparked a round of applause from the audience, People notes. Dolezal added that she began seeing herself as biracial "around 1998" and has considered herself black since 2006. (Rihanna has called her "a bit of a hero.") Report an error