Earlier this week it was reported that Rachel Dolezal was on the brink of homelessness and was having trouble finding employment after receiving backlash for lying about being African American. New reports now say that Dolezal has taken it a step further and has decided to change her name to something a bit closer to her imaginary “roots.”
According to Daily Mail, Washington state documents show that Dolezal, 39, has legally changed her name to Nkechi Amare Diallo. Nkechi, which is short for Nkechinyere, originates from the Igbo language in Nigeria and translates to’ what God has given’ or ‘gift of God.’
Diallo is a surname of Fula origin. The Fula people are one of the largest and a widely dispersed Muslim ethnic group in the Sahel region and West Africa.
Before being outed by her birth parents, Dolezal maintained that she was black, even going as far as claiming her adopted brother was her son and posting photos of a black man she met in Idaho, claiming he was her father. She would often style her blonde hair in “natural” hairstyles, and on the side, would braid hair for extra income.
She now maintains that race should be a fluid concept and that she should be allowed to identify as African American because race is “not coded in your DNA.”
