Rachel Dolezal still maintains she is black

Former civil rights leader Rachel Dolezal went viral last month after her estranged parents revealed she had appropriated a black identity but was in fact born white.

In the wake of the news, Dolezal stood down from her role as president of a local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Her contract was not renewed at the University where she had been teaching Africana-studies part time and she now is now weaving and braiding hair to make ends meet.

Now in an interview with Vanity Fair published on Sunday, Dolezal has insisted she is black but - crucially - not African American.

“You can’t just say in one sentence what is blackness or what is black culture or what makes you who you are," she tells interviewer Allison Samuels. "I just feel like I didn’t mislead anybody; I didn’t deceive anybody. If people feel misled or deceived, then sorry that they feel that way, but I believe that’s more due to their definition and construct of race in their own minds than it is to my integrity or honesty."

More: Rachel Dolezal finally speaks out over racial identity controversy