George Washington University professor says she lied about being black

An African history associate professor at George Washington University who publicly identified as black has now admitted she is actually white. 

Jessica Krug revealed on Thursday in a bombshell Medium post that she has lied about being black her entire career and admitted to deceiving her friends and colleagues.   

‘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,’ she wrote. 

‘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.’

In her blog post, Krug said she has battled ‘unaddressed mental health demons’ her entire life and that she first assumed a false identity as a child. 

Jessica Krug revealed on Thursday that she has lied about being black her entire career

Krug described herself as a ‘culture leech’ and a ‘coward’. 

‘I have thought about ending these lies many times over many years, but my cowardice was always more powerful than my ethics,’ she said. 

‘I know right from wrong. I know history. I know power. I am a coward. 

‘There is no ignorance, no innocence, nothing to claim, nothing to defend. I have moved wrong in every way for years. 

‘You should absolutely cancel me, and I absolutely cancel myself.’  

It is reminiscent of the scandal involving Rachel Dolezal – a former NAACP leader in Washington state who was exposed in 2015 as a white woman pretending to be black. 

Krug has been teaching classes on African history at GWU since 2012. She has also written several books and essays related to black culture.

Following the revelations in her post, Krug has since been slammed on Twitter by several black writers and scholars who she had contact with throughout her career.