‘Black’ Professor Admits She Is Actually White In Self-Published Essay

"You should absolutely cancel me, and I absolutely cancel myself," Jessica Krug of The George Washington University wrote on Medium.
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A history professor and political activist at The George Washington University has publicly admitted that she is actually white and Jewish — despite claiming to be Black for years.

Jessica A Krug — whose areas of expertise include “African American history” and “imperialism and colonialism” — came clean in a self-published essay titled “The Truth, and the Anti-Black Violence of My Lies” on Medium published Thursday. In the confessional piece, Krug said that she has deceived friends and colleagues by falsely claiming several identities like “North African Blackness, then US rooted Blackness, then Caribbean rooted Bronx Blackness” for “the better part of my adult life.”

Jessica Krug with her brand new book Fugitive Modernities at the Duke booth. Buy a copy for just $20. #AHA19 pic.twitter.com/OH36LvBHk8

— Duke University Press (@DukePress) January 4, 2019

“I am not a culture vulture. I am a culture leech,” Krug wrote. “I have thought about ending these lies many times over many years, but my cowardice was always more powerful than my ethics.”

Krug continued: “You should absolutely cancel me, and I absolutely cancel myself.”

A representative of The George Washington University, located in Washington, DC, told HuffPost in an email, “We are aware of the post and are looking into the situation. We cannot comment further on personnel matters.”

HuffPost reached out to Krug but did not receive an immediate response.

In her essay, Krug said that she’s been battling “unaddressed mental health demons” for most of her life and began assuming a false identity as a child.

“But mental health issues can never, will never, neither explain nor justify, neither condone nor excuse, that, in spite of knowing and regularly critiquing any and every non-Black person who appropriates from Black people, my false identity was crafted entirely from the fabric of Black lives,” she wrote.

Krug has been teaching classes such as “Topics in African History “ and “Africa and the African Diaspora” at the George Washington University since 2012, according to the university’s website. She has also written extensively on the subject of Blackness, including two books.

It’s unclear why Krug decided to write and publish her essay. Twitter users, who included people claiming to know Krug, have theories — along with reactions to the news.

Many people compared her to Rachel Dolezal, who was exposed as a white woman in 2015 after pretending to be Black while heading an NAACP chapter in Washington State.

To read their responses, scroll down.

So...this is bizarre. My heart goes out to any Black person who invited Jessica Krug into their sacred space under the assumption that she was Black too.

But why is she posting this now? Did someone threaten to blow her cover?

I have a lot of questions but I have a headache.

— Morgan Jerkins (@MorganJerkins) September 3, 2020

Hold on.

1. This is Jessica A. Krug (photo via @dukepress)
2. According to her Medium post, she spent the better part of her adult life pretending to be black, from various parts of the diaspora.

Fuck Jessica A. Krug. I'm not sharing her damn post, helping her fucking platform. pic.twitter.com/C2uSBLi0LA

— Genie Lauren (@MoreAndAgain) September 3, 2020

Wait. Rachel Dolezal has a sister named Jessica Krug? How many more of these people are out there other than Talcum X?

— roxane gay (@rgay) September 3, 2020

Jess Krug, professor at @GWtweets, is someone I called a friend up until this morning when she gave me a call admitting to everything written here. She didn't do it out of benevolence. She did it because she had been found out.https://t.co/kSNkVUzbtM

— Hari Ziyad (@HariZiyad) September 3, 2020

jessica krug's old author bio is, uh, something else pic.twitter.com/YMKW8eHiI0

— graham starr (@GrahamStarr) September 3, 2020

White people? It's ok to study Black history or African history and be white. You can even get degrees and be a professor and be white.

Stop with the Jessica Krug nonsense for crying out loud.

— Imani Gandy ☄️🌏🔥 (@AngryBlackLady) September 3, 2020

Yo we have to talk about this. Jessica Krug, a white Jewish woman from Kansas City, has been passing as a Black/Latina/Caribbean woman for years. This is violence, this is anti-black, and this is shameful. It's Rachel all over again. And I KNOW it's even more prevalent than this. pic.twitter.com/wKahUzQv2T

— Festive Colors (@neosoulgod) September 3, 2020

not one of jessica krug’s areas of expertise being imperialism and colonialism lmaooo pic.twitter.com/h71DddObOZ

— nadirah (@hinadirah) September 3, 2020

When Jessica Krug gets her book deal and is on the talk show circuit, remember this tweet. White women continually harm our communities and are rewarded for their efforts.

— Leslie Mac (@LeslieMac) September 3, 2020

My friends in media, we do not need dozens of interviews with Jessica Krug in order to get inside her thinking or hear her story. Seriously, please don't Dolezal this woman.

— Celeste Headlee (@CelesteHeadlee) September 3, 2020
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