White George Washington University professor admits to falsely claiming Black identities: ‘I am a culture leech’

A white history professor at George Washington University admitted Thursday to having falsely claimed several Black identities.

Jessica Krug, who specializes in African-American history, as well as Africa and Latin America, took to Medium on Thursday with a blog post in which she admitted to masquerading as a woman of Black Caribbean heritage.

“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 in the post, entitled, “The Truth, and the Anti-Black Violence of My Lies.”

Krug admitted she “not only claimed these identities as my own when I had absolutely no right to do so — when 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” but she’s formed relationships with people who trusted her.

The treacherous teacher noted that her appropriation of said identities is “unethical, immoral, anti-Black, colonial” and means she’s “gaslighted those whom I love.”

Ironically, Krug’s areas of expertise include Africa, Latin America, African-American History, Early Modern World, as well as Imperialism and Colonialism, according to her bio on the university’s website.

She’s taught classes on African History as well as a course entitled Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World.

Though Krug contended that “intention never matters more than impact,” she said she’s battled “some unaddressed mental health demons for my entire life” which she feels account for her false identity.

Regardless of the “severe trauma” she says she suffered growing up, Krug said, “Mental health issues can never, will never, neither explain nor justify, neither condone nor excuse … my false identity was crafted entirely from the fabric of Black lives.

“I am not a culture vulture,” she said. “I am a culture leech.”

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