In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World will chart her path from a child of white evangelical parents to an activist who identifies as black

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The civil rights activist who provoked anger, mockery and confusion last year after her white parents revealed she had posed as a black woman for years has unveiled a memoir that claims to explore “the discrimination she’s suffered while living as a black woman”.

Rachel Dolezal, 39, resigned from her post as a chapter president for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People last year, after her white parents revealed that for years she had altered her appearance and hidden traces of her biological family from her life.

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Dolezal announced details of the book on her Instagram account on Monday, saying it will be titled In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World.

An Amazon description description of the book says it will explain “the path that led her from being a child of white evangelical parents to an NAACP chapter president and respected educator and activist who identified as black”.

The description also claims the book will force readers “to consider race in an entirely new light – not as a biological imperative, but as a function of the experiences we have, the culture we embrace, and, ultimately, the identity we choose.”

“A lot of people think they know what Rachel Dolezal is,” it continues. “Race faker. Liar. Opportunist. Crazy bitch. But they don’t get to decide who Rachel Dolezal is.”

The controversy around Dolezal ballooned when she refused to answer any questions about her race, her adopted brother accused her of practicing “blackface”, and then she insisted that she had deceived no one about her race – and that she is African American.

She also defended her failed suit against Howard University in 2002, in which she alleged officials had discriminated against her because she was white. Years later she filed racial harassment complaints, alleging that she had received hate mail because she was black.

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Dolezal lost her job teaching African studies at Eastern Washington University in the wake of the media attention, as well as her post as chair of the Spokane police ombudsman commission.

Last December, she told the Guardian that she struggled to recover from the controversy. “People don’t want to associate with me,” she said. “It’s just like this disgust, and that was really hurtful, really hurtful.”

In that interview, she maintained that her racial identification “has been a lifelong journey”.

“For me, how I feel is more powerful than how I was born,” she said. “If somebody asked me how I identify, I identify as black. Nothing about whiteness describes who I am.”