Jessica Krug Stole Black Years
If we thought that Rachel Dolezal was an enigma, we were all corrected by today’s revelation courtesy of Jessica Krug.
Jessica Krug, a white professor who teaches “politics, ideas, and cultural practices in Africa and the African Diaspora” at George Washington University, outed herself on Medium, outed herself after pretending to be a Black Woman for the entirety of her professional career.
She starts, saying “To an escalating degree over my adult life, 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.”
“I have 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 I have formed intimate relationships with loving, compassionate people who have trusted and cared for me when I have deserved neither trust nor caring. People have fought together with me and have fought for me, and my continued appropriation of a Black Caribbean identity is not only, in the starkest terms, wrong — unethical, immoral, anti-Black, colonial — but it means that every step I’ve taken has gaslighted those whom I love.”
While Krug does out herself as masquerading as an Afro-Latina, calling herself a coward, what she does not do is outright apologize. Rather she seems to blame this masquerade as a mental health issue, saying “Mental health issues likely explain why I assumed a false identity initially, as a youth, and why I continued and developed it for so long.” She later says “But 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.”
The truth is that Krug immensely benefitted from her foray as an Afro Latina. Whether it was the accolades, financial backing from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for her book Fugitive Modernities, or that very book becoming a 2019 finalist for the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, says The Daily Beast.
But deeper than all of that, Jessica Krug has done harm to the communities that she pretended to belong to. Nowhere in her piece is there any genuine remorse. Sure, she says “There are no words in any language to express the depth of my remorse, but then again: there shouldn’t be. Words are never the point.” However, Krug’s Medium piece reads more like an admission before the news broke, a way to get ahead of the story that may have already been forthcoming.
A way for her to save face.
Imagine, having a wealth of knowledge of imperialism and colonialism and their effects, only to, as a White Woman, be living them as she’s teaching them. Imagine teaching in a time of Black Lives Matter, only to be living a stolen Black Life.
But what about all of those she influenced. Through her book, her classes, her lectures, her influence? What about the harm done to the communities that she pretended to be a part of? What opportunities did she take away from an actual person of color by pretending to be one? What positions, grants, scholarships, support did she snatch from actual Black people through this farce? What about her students, many of whom knew something was amiss, but did not know the full extent?
And how do we, to her recommendation, “cancel her”? After all, the act of canceling is an element of accountability that is usually reserved for the unrepentant, and here she is, supposedly repenting. And accountability involves community. What community will lead this accountability? What community does she even belong to?
Jessica Krug, a white professor who teaches “politics, ideas, and cultural practices in Africa and the African Diaspora” at George Washington University, outed herself on Medium, outed herself after pretending to be a Black Woman for the entirety of her professional career.
She starts, saying “To an escalating degree over my adult life, 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.”
“I have 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 I have formed intimate relationships with loving, compassionate people who have trusted and cared for me when I have deserved neither trust nor caring. People have fought together with me and have fought for me, and my continued appropriation of a Black Caribbean identity is not only, in the starkest terms, wrong — unethical, immoral, anti-Black, colonial — but it means that every step I’ve taken has gaslighted those whom I love.”
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| Jessica Krug's biography |
While Krug does out herself as masquerading as an Afro-Latina, calling herself a coward, what she does not do is outright apologize. Rather she seems to blame this masquerade as a mental health issue, saying “Mental health issues likely explain why I assumed a false identity initially, as a youth, and why I continued and developed it for so long.” She later says “But 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.”
The truth is that Krug immensely benefitted from her foray as an Afro Latina. Whether it was the accolades, financial backing from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for her book Fugitive Modernities, or that very book becoming a 2019 finalist for the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, says The Daily Beast.
But deeper than all of that, Jessica Krug has done harm to the communities that she pretended to belong to. Nowhere in her piece is there any genuine remorse. Sure, she says “There are no words in any language to express the depth of my remorse, but then again: there shouldn’t be. Words are never the point.” However, Krug’s Medium piece reads more like an admission before the news broke, a way to get ahead of the story that may have already been forthcoming.
A way for her to save face.
Imagine, having a wealth of knowledge of imperialism and colonialism and their effects, only to, as a White Woman, be living them as she’s teaching them. Imagine teaching in a time of Black Lives Matter, only to be living a stolen Black Life.
But what about all of those she influenced. Through her book, her classes, her lectures, her influence? What about the harm done to the communities that she pretended to be a part of? What opportunities did she take away from an actual person of color by pretending to be one? What positions, grants, scholarships, support did she snatch from actual Black people through this farce? What about her students, many of whom knew something was amiss, but did not know the full extent?
And how do we, to her recommendation, “cancel her”? After all, the act of canceling is an element of accountability that is usually reserved for the unrepentant, and here she is, supposedly repenting. And accountability involves community. What community will lead this accountability? What community does she even belong to?
We can do this outrage dance over Jessica Krug today like we did Rachel Dolezal yesterday. Tomorrow, when dark skinned Black women talk about colorism and light skin privilege that center and reward proximity to whiteness, you'll call us jealous and bitter, saying Black is Black.
— Uju Anya (@UjuAnya) September 3, 2020
The questions need to be asked of Krug that were asked of Dolezal (former president of the NAACP’s Spokane, Washington chapter outed by her parents in 2015 for pretending to be a Black woman): why do white people, often scholars and activists, find it so difficult to engage with matters of importance to Black people without a masquerade? Why are you unable to Why can’t you care passionately for the people of the Black Community without being one of them? Why can’t you be white and actively combat anti-blackness?
While the University has yet to respond, many are calling on George Washington University to take action. An admission of guilt does not absolve of the actions Krug has done. No amount of false humility or calls of self-canceling will erase the damage done. At the very least, the educational institution which 1st affirmed her can make a step in the right direction by removing her as a professor.
While the University has yet to respond, many are calling on George Washington University to take action. An admission of guilt does not absolve of the actions Krug has done. No amount of false humility or calls of self-canceling will erase the damage done. At the very least, the educational institution which 1st affirmed her can make a step in the right direction by removing her as a professor.
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