A professor of African and Latin American studies who portrayed herself as Black has now revealed she has been lying.Jessica Krug confessed in a Medium post that she pretended to be Black because of teenage ‘trauma’ and mental illness
Jessica A. Krug, an associate professor at George Washington University, has written extensively about Africa, Latin America, the diaspora and identity, all while claiming her own Black and Latina heritage. But in an article published on Medium.com on Thursday, Krug revealed the truth: She is White.
"To an escalating degree over my adult life, I have eschewed my lived experience as a white Jewish child in suburban Kansas City under various assumed identities within a Blackness that I had no right to claim: first North African Blackness, then US rooted Blackness, then Caribbean rooted Bronx Blackness," she wrote.
Krug acknowledged in her post that she had no right to claim these identities, saying that "doing so is the 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 apologized for what she calls her "continued appropriation of a Black Caribbean identity," saying she was wrong, unethical, immoral, anti-Black and colonial.
"I am not a culture vulture," she wrote. "I am a culture leech."“CULTURE LEECH” – Jessica Krug Asks To Be Canceled After Lying About Being Black
Why Did Jessica Krug Create The Jess La Bombera Persona?
Why did Jessica Krug lie about being Black?While Krug blamed mental illness , she also acknowledged that not even mental illness can excuse — or explain — why she did what she did.
However, it goes without saying that the response to this revelation was swift and far from positive.
Krug grew up as a white Jewish child in Kansas City, but assumed various Black identities.She has been several different things during the years!“To an escalating degree over my adult life,
I have eschewed my lived experience as a white Jewish child in suburban Kansas City under various assumed identities within a Blackness that I had no right to claim:
first North African Blackness,
then U.S. rooted Blackness,
then the Caribbean rooted Bronx Blackness,” she wrote.
“I have not only claimed these identities as my own when I had absolutely no right to do so.”
