Rihanna Calls Rachel Dolezal a "Hero"

Rihanna is defending Rachel Dolezal, saying she sees nothing wrong with the white NAACP leader identifying as black.

"I think she was a bit of a hero, because she kind of flipped on society a little bit," Rihanna told Vanity Fair. "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 is one of the few people who has publicly praised - and not panned - Dolezal, who became a media spectacle over the summer after her parents came forward to say that their estranged daughter has been masquerading as a black woman for years. And though Dolezal continued to insist that she wasn't white, she was forced to resign from her position as president of the NAACP's Spokane, Wash., chapter and was let go by Eastern Washington University, where she taught an African studies course.

This article, Rihanna Calls Rachel Dolezal a "Hero", originally appeared on TVGuide.com.