Gender studies
Gender studies scholar Samantha Allen said, "Rachel Dolezal seems determined to appropriate not just blackness but the rhetoric of transgender identity as well" and called the analogy "spurious". "Washington Post" journalist Jonathan Capehart suggested, "blackface remains highly racist, no matter how down with the cause a white person is." Her adopted brother Ezra Dolezal also compared his sister's behavior to blackface and said "she's basically creating more racism".