An American teacher who identified herself as a black woman admitted to having lied about her origins, a confession with serious consequences in a country with strong racial tensions and where cultural appropriation is widely denounced.
In publication on the Medium platform, Jessica Krug, a history professor at the prestigious George Washington University in Washington, took on the farce she maintained for “most of” her adult life.
“I hid my past as a white Jewish girl from the suburbs of Kansas City to take advantage of several black identities that I had no right to claim: first as a black woman from North Africa, then African American and, finally, a black woman from Bronx, of Caribbean origin, “wrote Jessica Krug, a fair-skinned woman.
These lies represent “a synthesis of violence, theft and appropriation, of the countless ways in which non-blacks continue to use and abuse black identities and cultures,” wrote Krug, calling himself a “cultural leech.”
An associate professor at George Washington University, Jessica A. Krug wrote extensively about Africa, Latin America, the diaspora and identity, all while portraying herself as Black. But the whole time, she was lying. She is White. https://t.co/SFQ33nAUx1
– CNN (@CNN) September 4, 2020
One of his former students told CNN what to teacher told students that she was proud of her origin in the Bronx. Also according to CNN, Krug, who taught classes on African and colonial history, he read aloud the word “nigger”, a term considered offensive especially when used by non-black people.
In addition, according to the former student, she often claimed black and indigenous artists and gave lectures on topics such as the indigenous populations of Chile. The teacher still used many terms in Spanish, which in theory came from her Puerto Rican origins.
George Washington University announced that it is aware of these revelations and is assessing the situation. The use of identity symbols from communities to which one does not belong, the so-called “cultural appropriation”, is strongly condemned in the USA, especially in academic and progressive circles.
In the country’s official censuses, however, people can identify with the ethnic origin they want.
– .