Is ‘Wrong Skin’ Hoax Real? Godfrey Elfwick, Rachel Dolezal Spark Heated Twitter Debate

Twitter users debated Friday whether a person could be born in the “wrong skin” after the parents of Rachel Dolezal, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter in Spokane, Washington, claimed she was actually white. Godfrey Elfwick, who labels himself a “genderqueer Muslim atheist” on his Twitter profile, further sparked the debate when he claimed he too was “white born in the wrong skin.”

The problem is that Elfwick, who appears to be British, is a notorious hoaxer, as the conservative site Breitbart.com noted in April. He once claimed that "Star Wars" “reeks of misogyny,” and duped the BBC. Elfwick also invoked racism and sexism in his April tweets about "Star Wars." “The main bad guy, what’s he called, Dark Raider. He’s all black. He listens to rap music. He’s just a real bad racial stereotype,” he wrote.

Early Friday morning, Elfwick ruffled feathers anew when he created a picture that said he stood by Dolezal’s side. “My name is Godfrey. I am WrongSkin. You may not have heard of that but it means I was born white skin but I identify as being black. It’s not a joke. It’s not OK to mock us. It’s not easy to live like this. Our struggle is your struggle,” he wrote. In the caption, he claimed 10 percent of people are born "wrongskin," which is a fabricated statistic.

While Elfwick made a show of standing behind Dolezal, the NAACP issued a statement that said race did not matter what it came to leadership in their organization. “One’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership,” part of the statement read. “The NAACP Alaska-Oregon-Washington State Conference stands behind Ms. Dolezal’s advocacy record.”

Thanks to Elfwick, the “wrong skin” hashtag quickly became a top-trending Twitter topic Friday. Some of the tamer comments netizens shared have been listed below:

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