George Washington University investigating white professor who masqueraded as Black

George Washington University said on Friday it is investigating the case of a white professor who wrote in a blog that she faked multiple Black identities that were central to her writings and research. The situation came to light after the publication of a blog post by Jessica Krug, in which the white author confesses to falsely claiming Black Caribbean heritage.

George Washington University said on Friday it is investigating the case of a white professor who wrote in a blog that she faked multiple Black identities that were central to her writings and research.

The situation came to light after the publication of a blog post by Jessica Krug, in which the white author confesses to falsely claiming Black Caribbean heritage. "For the better part of my adult life, every move I've made, every relationship I've formed, has been rooted in the napalm toxic soil of lies," Krug wrote. "I have built my life on a violent anti-Black lie, and I have lied in every breath I have taken."

The post continued with Krug writing that she "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." Krug did not immediately respond to emailed and phoned requests for comment.

George Washington University Provost M. Brian Blake confirmed Krug wrote the blog post. He said in a statement posted on the university's website that the situation was being investigated and that Krug would not be teaching her classes this semester. The case is similar to that of Rachel Dolezal, a Washington state NAACP civil rights leader, who identified as Black but was biologically white.

Krug authored a 2018 book titled "Fugitive Modernities" that examined the political practices of those who fled slavery. The book was a finalist for the 2019 Frederick Douglass Book Prize and also the Harriet Tubman Prize.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)