GW Professor Jessica Krug Resigns After Falsely Claiming She Was Black

Topline

George Washington University said Wednesday that associate professor Jessica Krug has resigned less than a week after she admitted in a Medium post that she has claimed a Black identity for years, despite being white, and should “absolutely be canceled,” inciting immediate backlash across social media and a university investigation. 

Key Facts

Key Background

Krug’s book was well-reviewed by a slew of prominent academics and authors. In the forward, she wrote, “It is an inadequate and perhaps unintelligible love letter to and for those who do not read. My grandparents, who gave me the best parts of themselves, music and movement and storytelling, the inclination to ask and the soul to listen. My ancestors, unknown, unnamed, who bled life into a future they had no reason to believe could or should exist. My brother, the fastest, the smartest, the most charming of us all. Those whose names I cannot say for their own safety, whether in my barrio, in Angola, or in Brazil.”

Tangent

Some compared her to Rachel Dolezal, a former leader of the NAACP’s Spokane branch and African-American studies professor, who said she was Black for years before sparking a national controversy when she was “outed” by journalists in 2015. In some ways, Dolezal’s career took off after it came out that she was not Black. She wrote the 2017 memoir In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World and was the subject of the 2018 Netflix documentary The Racial Divide.

Chief Critics

Two social media users accused her of writing the post after being “discovered” by colleagues, all of whom were women of color. The individuals making the accusations did not respond to Forbes’ request to comment.

Further Reading

The Truth, and the Anti-Black Violence of My Lies (Medium)

Students deserve better – Jessica Krug must leave her position (The GW Hatchet)