"I'm a cultural leech": White teacher says she has pretended to be black her entire professional career

Jessica A. Krug is featured in a photo that was posted on her staff's profile at George Washington University.

(CNN) -

An African and Latin American studies professor who portrayed herself as black has now revealed that she has been lying.

Jessica A. Krug, associate professor at George Washington University, has written extensively on Africa, Latin America, the diaspora, and identity, all while claiming her own black and Latino heritage.

But in an article published on Medium.com on Thursday, Krug revealed the truth: She is white.

“To an increasing degree throughout my adult life, I have avoided my lived experience as a white Jewish girl in the Kansas City suburbs under various assumed identities within a blackness that I had no right to claim: first the blackness of the North Africa, then the blackness of American roots, then the blackness of the Caribbean roots of the Bronx, ”he wrote.

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Krug acknowledged in his post that he had no right to claim these identities, saying that “doing so is the epitome of violence, theft and appropriation, the myriad ways that non-black people continue to use and abuse identities. blacks and cultures ”.

She apologized for what she calls her "continued appropriation of a black Caribbean identity," saying it was wrong, unethical, immoral, anti-black and colonial.

"I am not a vulture of culture," he wrote.

"I am a cultural leech."

A student was shocked by the revelation

Anmol Goraya, a third-year student at George Washington studying international affairs, says she took an introductory history class with Krug in the spring of 2019. At the time, Krug was one of her favorite teachers;

Goraya said she looked like an energetic woman of color who made no apologies for who she was, who came to class in high heels, huge hoop earrings and even leopard prints.

Goraya told CNN that Krug often advocated for black and indigenous artists, and lectured on topics such as indigenous populations in Chile and the role of rice in the African diaspora.

"From the moment he entered the classroom, I was amazed," Goraya said.

And I am surprised that it was a complete lie.

Krug told the class he was from the Bronx, an identity he was proud of, Goraya told CNN.

She once even got into an argument with a student who tried to say that rap was invented in Brooklyn.

He also used a lot of Spanish in his speech.

For example, instead of "plantain" in English, she always said "bananas."

But the exact place where he was from always changed, Goraya said.

She once spoke about the importance of bananas to her family in the Dominican Republic, but told another student that she was from Puerto Rico, Goraya said.

Still, she would never have guessed that Krug was lying.

“It was the last thing on my mind to think he was lying.

I thought the details were confusing, ”she said.

Krug also said the "N" word (which in English is a derogatory way of referring to black people) that was in the texts the class was reading, Goraya told CNN.

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The university is investigating

Crystal Nosal, a spokeswoman for George Washington University, wrote to CNN that the university is aware of Krug's post and is investigating the situation, but "cannot comment further on personnel matters."

CNN reached out to Krug for a statement, but did not immediately receive a response.

Krug's admission recalls the 2015 case of Rachel Dolezal, another white woman who passed as a black woman while teaching African studies at Eastern Washington University and leading her local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). for its acronym in English).

Many on Twitter immediately spoke out against Krug, saying he would continue to take opportunities away from blacks.

When Jessica Krug gets her contract to write a book and is on the talk show circuit, remember this tweet.

White women continually harm our communities and are rewarded for their efforts, "wrote organizer Leslie Mac." She wrote the entire article and included LITERALLY ZERO plans to repair the damage she caused, so what was the purpose of the article?

Attention and access, just like her pretending to be a black woman.

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Krug referred to his ancestors in a writing

Krug received his Ph.D. in 2012 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, according to his staff page on the George Washington University website.

He has written extensively for Essence magazine, most recently on August 27 for an article titled "On Puerto Rico, Blackness, and Being When Nations Are Not Enough."

That piece has since been removed from the Essence website.

The introduction to his 2018 book, "Fugitive Modernities: Out-of-State Politics and Identity in Kisama, Angola, and the Americas, from 1594 to the Present," which traces the histories of communities in Angola, begins with references to those who came before than her, her grandparents and her ancestors.

It is now considered one of the ways that Krug lied about her identity.

«My grandparents, who gave me the best of themselves, music and movement and storytelling, the inclination to ask and the soul to listen.

My ancestors, unknown, nameless, who bled their lives in a future that they had no reason to believe could or should exist.

My brother, the fastest, the smartest, the most charming of all.

Those whose names I cannot say for their own safety, whether in my neighborhood, in Angola or in Brazil, ”he wrote.

Racism