George Washington University professor admits pretending to be Black for years

A US academic working at a private research university in Washington D.C admitted pretending to be Black for years when in fact she was a white Jewish woman from Kansas City. Jessica Krug, an associate professor at George Washington University, wrote in a Medium post that she assumed various Black identities that she had no right to claim.

Krug described her behaviour as “very epitome of violence, of thievery and appropriation of the myriad ways in which non-Black people continue to use and abuse Black identities and cultures”.  She said that her continued appropriation of a Black Caribbean identity not only “unethical, immoral, anti-Black, colonial” but it also means she has gaslighted those whom she loves.

“For the better part of my adult life, every move I’ve made, every relationship I’ve formed, has been rooted in the napalm toxic soil of lies. Not just any lies,” she wrote.

Krug said that no white person or non-Black person has the right to claim to belong in a Black community by virtue of abuse, trauma, non-acceptance, and non-belonging in a white community. She added that Black people and Black communities have no obligation to harbour the refuse of non-Black societies.

“I am not a culture vulture. I am a culture leech...I am a coward,” the post read.

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'There was something off'

The academic claimed she thought about ending the lies many times over the years, but her cowardice was always more powerful than her ethics. While she hasn’t disclosed the reason to admit her deception, screenwriter Hari Ziyad said her admission came "because she had been found out".

In a series of tweets, Ziyad said that he defended her work, and her from her own self-loathing for years despite warnings from Black friends who said she wasn't Black enough. He said that there was “something off” given her persistent negativity and jealousy, and always needing to prove her authenticity at the expense of everything else.

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