(theGrio) Rachel Dolezal, 37, the head of the Spokane, Washington, branch of the NAACP, has represented herself as an African-American woman and has built a career as a vocal advocate and academic expert on issues related to race and police brutality. Moreover, she and her husband adopted four black children. However, her white parents outed her as a white woman, providing her birth certificate as proof.
Dolezal has received support in social media, with some using the hashtag #Transracial to compare her to Caitlyn Jenner, 65, the reality show star and Olympic athlete formerly known as Bruce Jenner who recently came out as a transgender woman and appeared in Vanity Fair. If Dolezal identifies as black, just as Jenner identifies as a woman, they argue, should she not be accepted in that way?