Hey, I don't blame her, really. With the silly skin-deep preferences we are showing people these days, I have seriously thought of "re"-identifying myself as African-American. Heck, it appears very likely that being gay will place you in a preferential place so I'll check that box off, too, if it'll help me out. If the rules of the game are stupid, then you may as well play along for your benefit.
I used to work for the government (didn't last long), and I was stunned to find out that the only non-protected class of government employees is non-Veteran, non-orphan-of-Veteran, non-disabled white men under 40 years of age. I just thought that was wrong.