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A prominent activist and professor of African American history at George Washington University has admitted that she has been pretending to be a black woman.
Jessica Krug, 38, wrote on the Medium blog website that her various identities have been built on a “toxic soil of lies” and that she is in fact a white Jewish woman from Kansas City.
The revelation draws a parallel to the case of the former civil rights activist Rachel Dolezal, who was exposed by her parents in 2015 as having been lying about being black.
In the blog post, Ms. Krug revealed that she had assumed many false identities, including “North African blackness, American-origin blackness (and) Caribbean-born Bronx blackness.”
“I have not only claimed these identities as my own when I had absolutely no right to do so, when doing so is the epitome of violence, theft and appropriation, of the myriad ways non-black people continue to use and abuse identities. and black cultures, but I have formed intimate relationships with caring and compassionate people who have trusted and cared for me when I was unworthy of trust and affection, “he wrote.
“I have built my life on a violent anti-black lie, and I have lied with every breath I have taken … I am not a culture vulture. I am a culture leech.”
According to the George Washington University website, Ms. Krug has a Ph.D. and “is a historian of politics, ideas and cultural practices in Africa and the African diaspora.”
He has also written several books on African American history and culture.
In a now-deleted online biography, Ms. Krug referred to herself as “a girl from the neighborhood who doesn’t regret or reform.”
Several writers and activists tweeted their anger at the hoax.
Many testified that they met Ms. Krug under the name Jess La Bombalera. A video posted online under the pseudonym shows her criticizing “all these white New Yorkers who waited four hours with us to speak and then did not give up their time for black and brown New Yorkers.”
Author Robert Jones Jr tweeted: “This morning, I discovered that Jessica A Krug, also known as Jess La Bombera, is a white woman who has been posing as a black woman for over 10 years.
“A lot of black women have been trying to get this information out and shut down. I had no idea.
“I shared about five of Jess’s articles here over the past three years and allowed her to take the mic on occasions when she told me that my analysis was not complete enough and that I needed to let her speak ‘like a black woman.’
Several publishers, including RaceBaitr, removed Ms. Krug’s work from their website following the news on Thursday.
In the Medium blog post titled “The Truth and the Anti-Blackness of My Lies,” Ms. Krug blamed the psychological damage caused by childhood trauma for her lies.
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“But mental health issues can never, never, never explain or justify, condone or excuse, that, despite regularly meeting and criticizing each and every non-black person who appropriates black people, my false identity was created entirely from the fabric of black lives, “he wrote.
Sky News has reached out to George Washington University for comment.
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