Remember Rachel Dolezal? The woman who was let go as a professor of Africana studies at Eastern Washington University in 2015 when her very caucasian parents revealed that she had been pretending to be black for a very long time? Yeah, I figured you might.
She might have dropped out of the news cycle (look, there’s a lot of stuff going on, ok), but she sure has continued to exist since then. Since the incident, she has changed her name to Nkechi Amare Diallo (‘Nkechi’ means ‘God’s own’ in the West African language Igbo) and released a book in which she compared her experiences to slavery. Pretty normal stuff.
While she was much maligned by more or less everyone with a keyboard and an opinion, it turns out she still has some fans. Or, at least, she is under the impression that she has some fans. You can deduce this from the fact that she has a website from which she is selling official Rachel Dolezal merch. (If the name thing is confusing, she’s said in interviews that her new name is so people don’t immediately throw out her resumé, and she will still use Rachel Dolezal as her ‘public name’.)
From racheldolezal.com the former university professor is selling photographic self-portraits, artistic collages, a bafflingly large array of expensive lollipops (no, I don’t know either), and a 2018 calendar. The calendar, pictured below, contains “photos of Rachel Dolezal by four portrait photographers & her own inspirational quotes“. Exactly what you’ve always wanted!
Pictured: An image that will give a graphic designer an aneurysm (use sparingly).
They go for the low, low price of $20 USD if you’re interested in buying someone you hate the worst gift possible.
Truly Dolezal is a testament to the human spirit and that distinctly American sensibility that says ‘Even if every single person in the world unanimously agrees that you are in the wrong, just keep doing what you are doing‘. Inspiring.
