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Rachel Dolezal Parents Dispute Daughter's Account in NBC Interview

The parents of Rachel Dolezal have accused the former NAACP leader embroiled in a race controversy of continuing to lie about her racial identity.
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The parents of Rachel Dolezal have accused the former NAACP leader embroiled in a race controversy of continuing to lie about her racial identity.

Dolezal, who was born to a white family, told NBC News on Tuesday in a series of interviews that she identifies as black and from around the age of 5 was "drawing self-portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon and black curly hair."

Her mother, Ruthanne Dolezal, directly disputed that account in an interview with NBC affiliate KHQ.

"That didn't happen," said Ruthanne Dolezal, who is now estranged from her daughter. "It's disappointing to see that Rachel is still making false statements... I was hoping to see a change."

Rachel Dolezal, however, questioned whether Ruthanne and Larry Dolezal really were her parents.

“I haven’t had a DNA test. There’s been no biological proof that Larry and Ruthanne are my biological parents,” she told NBC News' Savannah Guthrie, who pointed to a birth certificate listing Larry and Ruthanne Dolezal as her parents.

“I’m not necessarily saying that I can prove they’re not,” Dolezal added. “But I don’t know that I can actually prove they are."

The scandal and ensuing debate on racial identity began last week when the Dolezals accused their daughter of pretending to be black, saying they wanted people to know the truth.

Related: Rachel Dolezal Breaks Silence: 'I Identify as Black'

Dolezal has since resigned her position in the NAACP, lost her job as an African studies instructor at a Washington university, and is being investigated by the Spokane city ethics commission over whether she lied about her race on an application to the police oversight board.

"Nothing about being white describes who I am," she told Guthrie. "The closest thing that I can come to is if — if you're black or white, I'm black. I'm more black than I am white."

In an interview that aired on Wednesday's TODAY, Dolezal added that she cried while reading about Caitlyn Jenner's journey to becoming a woman because it "resonated" with her.