Rihanna: Ex-NAACP Exec Who Pretended to be Black 'a Bit of a HERO'

Monica Sanchez | October 6, 2015
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In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, singer Rihanna called Rachel Dolezal – the former Spokane, Wash. NAACP president who faked being African-American – 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.”

After news broke of her identity as a white woman, Dolezal resigned from her leadership position with the NAACP as well as her job as a professor of Africana Studies at Eastern Washington University.

In her interview with Vanity Fair back in July, she claimed that she wasn’t “confused” or pretending to be African-American, but that she truly identified with “the black experience.”  

“It’s not a costume,” she said. “I don’t know spiritually and metaphysically how this goes, but I do know that from my earliest memories I have awareness and connection with the black experience, and that’s never left me.”

Image via Vanity Fair

“It’s not something that I can put on and take off anymore,” Dolezal went on. “Like I said, I’ve had my years of confusion and wondering who I really [was] and why and how do I live my life and make sense of it all, but I’m not confused about that any longer. I think the world might be – but I’m not.”

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