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A white man who claims he was born in the 'wrong skin' and identifies as being black has began a Twitter campaign.

The Twitter user who calls himself Godfrey Elfwick wrote a post saying he had been born to white parents but believed he was black.

Using the hashtag #wrongskin, he said he stood in solidarity with Rachel Dolezal, the US black rights campaigner who was outed today as being white.

Dolezal, who leads the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Washington, is said to have been falsely portraying herself as black for nearly a decade .

Godfrey, who identifies as a 'genderqueer Muslim atheist', wrote on Twitter: "My name is Godfrey. I am WrongSkin.

"You may not have heard of that but it means I was born to white parents and have 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 added: "I stand by #RachelDolezal."

The Sheffield student claims 10 per cent of people were born in the wrong skin - although offers no basis for that statistic.

Another of his posts reads: "A person's skin colour does not determine their ethnicity.

"I have light skin yet I know in my heart I am black and act accordingly."

He claims to have been identifying as #WrongSkin on Twitter for at least six months.

The hashtag #WrongSkin became the number two trending topic on Twitter worldwide today.

Many believed the Twitter account was a parody amid reports Godfrey has been outed as a hoaxer before.

In April, the BBC World Service apologised after being duped by him after they recruited him via Twitter to comment on the Star Wars films .

(Image: Handout)

On the show he said described the films as both anti-women and anti-gay and said Darth Vader was a black man and a "really bad racial stereotype".

One website says Godfrey "regularly fools observers with his parody Twitter account, an off-the-deep-end 'social justice warrior' persona that tweets bizarrely and hilariously about racism, sexism, misogyny and other favoured topics of the political Left."

But regardless of whether Godfrey is genuine, it has sparked a debate over whether it is possible to be born in the 'wrong skin'.

Twitter user @LuckySeven30 wrote: "If we are accepting of people switching genders we should also be accepting of people switching races."

But many mocked the idea of a 'wrong skin' or 'transracial' identity.

One user wrote: "My skin isn't literally 'wrong' it's just really really unpopular and out of style right now."

Another wrote: "Next time I get stopped by the cops gonna tell him I'm in the #WrongSkin so I won't get harassed."