We learned about parents and her family in this documentary. Her parents were religiously conservative Christians who eventually began adopting children when they were unable to safely give birth to children besides Rachel and her older brother Joshua. It was easier and cheaper for them to adopt black children, so they did that. But they weren't prepared to help their adoptive children with learning about their own black identities and histories, so Rachel stepped up and assumed that educator role.
We also learned that her parents were physically and emotionally abusive to the children. Rachel's sister Esther showed scars from her childhood abuse. Rachel eventually adopted her brother Franklin in an attempt to protect him from their parents' abuse.
Esther also claimed that she'd been sexually abused by their older brother Joshua, as did Rachel. They were moving forward with a criminal court case against Joshua. It was around this time that Joshua began planting tips about Rachel's transracial identity with the local media. It was an effort to destroy her credibility as a witness. And it worked. The case was eventually dropped against him.
But most of "The Rachel Divide" is about Rachel and her boys coping with the fall-out from her outing and public disgrace and her failed efforts to rehabilitate her reputation through the media, through social media, and through her book.
I came away from "The Rachel Divide" with really mixed thoughts. She's clearly not black, though she identifies with the "black experience" -- which isn't a universal thing. But most of her siblings are black. Her ex-husband is black. Her children are biracial. She's immersed herself for most of her life in black theory, culture, and history. But somewhere along the way, she claimed her black identity. It evolved over time and I'm not sure how much of it is purposeful choice and how much of it is delusion. But she refuses to stop claiming that she's black. And she refuses to nuance her story in a way that doesn't offend those who have lived black lives since birth.
Most people who know me know that I have a biracial black son. I have a black experience through him. My perspective on racial politics and social justice has been enhanced because of him and his presence in our lives. But I'm not foolish enough to believe that I'm a black man and no amount of cultural immersion will ever change that.
And there's Rachel's fatal error. Her continued insistence that she is a black woman just reeks of white privilege and attention-grabbing. The blacks that she advocates for cannot ever switch to other races. She ultimately would have been better off honing her skills, education, and her own unique background as a white ally to the NAACP and other African-American organizations. She might not have become the type of black leader that she had become, but she wouldn't have seen her reputation blow up around her like it did. And she would still be part of the movement instead of permanently pushed out.
I learned at the end of the documentary that Dolezel legally changed her name to Nkechi Diallo, largely as an effort to start fresh with her identity. This is the first and only time that I've heard of this. I've seen her webpage and Twitter account recently and she's still going by "Rachel Dolezal" there. So I'm not sure how she is utilizing her new identity. Most likely, it's an effort to make herself less toxic for future employers