Rihanna Calls ‘Transracial’ Rachel Dolezal ‘A Bit Of A Hero’

Rihanna has shown her support for controversial figure Rachel Dolezal – the white woman who identifies as black.

Rihanna Calls Rachel Dolezal A Hero

Though Rihanna generally stays away from weighing in on politics and other controversial matters, she was uncharacteristically candid in her recent Vanity Fair profile. When asked for her thoughts on Dolezal, Rihanna shared a somewhat uncommon view that the former NAACP chapter head was something of a hero.

“I think she was a bit of a hero, because she kind of flipped on society a little bit,” Rihanna explained. “Is it such a horrible thing that she pretended to be black?”

“Black is a great thing, and I think she legit changed people’s perspective a bit and woke people up,” Rihanna added

According to Dolezal, who was born to white parents, she started identifying as black as a five-year-old, using a brown crayon to color in her complexion and giving herself black curly hair.

“My life has been one of survival and the decisions that I have made along the way, including my identification, have been to survive and to carry forward in my journey and life continuum,” Dolezal told Matt Lauer on the Today show back in June.

Dolezal has been adamant that she did not intentionally deceive people about having white biological parents. She claimed that she has at times been identified as transracial, but has also been referred to as biracial and black. Dolezal did not deny failing to correct people for assuming that she was not born white.

“I do take exception to [accusations of deception] because it’s a little more complex than me identifying as black or answering a question of, are you black or white?” said Dolezal.