Jessica Krug: white professor who pretended to be Black resigns from university post
Jessica Krug, the white George Washington University professor who made headlines around the world after confessing she had long claimed to be Black, has resigned, according to the university.
Related: Jessica Krug is a symptom of a bigger problem: the way blackness is appropriated | Arwa Mahdawi
“Dr Krug has resigned her position, effective immediately. Her classes for this semester will be taught by other faculty members, and students in those courses will receive additional information this week,” noted the university in a statement issued Wednesday.
In a case that drew parallels to Rachel Dolezal, Krug published a Medium post last week in which she admitted to pretending to be Black for years, while in fact she is a white woman from Kansas City.
Krug said she claimed identities “that I had no right to claim: first North African Blackness, then US rooted Blackness, then Caribbean rooted Bronx Blackness”.
Last week, the university announced it had cancelled classes taught by Krug. Her colleagues in the history department had called on her to step down from her post, saying they were “shocked and appalled by Dr Jessica Krug’s admission on September 3, 2020, that she has lied about her identity for her entire career”.
Krug’s biography on the university’s website lists imperialism and colonialism and African American history among her areas of expertise. Her writings center on issues of African culture and diaspora.
Krug alluded in her Medium post to a mental health issues but said she did not believe that excused her behavior.
“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 not commented publicly on the backlash beyond her initial post.
