DAVE ROSS

The most fascinating woman in America

Jun 16, 2015, 6:02 AM | Updated: 9:16 am

Rachel Dolezal, a leader of the Human Rights Education Institute, stands in front of a mural she pa...

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 in 2009. (AP Photo/Nicholas K. Geranios)

(AP Photo/Nicholas K. Geranios)

Rachel Dolezal has become the most fascinating woman in America, claiming she was born in a teepee in Montana, that “Jesus Christ” was the witness on her birth certificate, and that even though her biological parents are white, she is black.

And now we know why.

On Tuesday’s “Today” show, she said that from age 5 she just identified as black.

Related: 3 really embarrassing NAACP Facebook posts according to Jason Rantz

“This is not some freak, birth-of-a-nation, mockery, blackface performance,” she said.

Her skin color, she says, is natural. She goes out in the sun a lot.

And the black man who she calls her dad?

“Albert Wilkerson is my dad,” she said. “Any man can be a father, not every man can be a dad.”

So here’s a white person, who, from an early age wanted to reject white privilege.

And because you can’t do that if you’re white, when people started assuming she was black, she ran with it. Because she feels black.

The universal criticism of Rachel Dolezal shows that for all the progress we like to think we’ve made on racial equality, it’s still the case that while everyone can easily see why a black person would want to pass for white, most of us &#8212 black and white alike &#8212 still can’t imagine why a white person would want to be black; to the point that a lot of people assume she is mentally ill.

Otherwise, Rachel Dolezal would be just be one more person who padded her resume. As for what race her kids think she is?

“Well, I was actually talking to one of my sons yesterday, and he said, ‘Mom, racially you’re human, and culturally, you’re black,” she said.

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The most fascinating woman in America