Jessica Krug, the George Washington University professor who admitted she lied about being Black, has resigned. Krug, who is White, wrote a Medium post last week apologizing for building her life “around a violent anti-Black lie.”
The university said in a letter to students and alumni: “Dr. Krug has resigned her position, effective immediatelyHer classes for this semester will be taught by other faculty members, and students in those courses will receive additional information this week.”
In her Medium post, Krug said throughout her adult life she has “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 acknowledged that “unaddressed mental health demons” likely contributed to her decision to assume a black identity, but said that those struggles did not excuse the harm she caused to the Black community. She added, “No white person, no non-Black person, has the right to claim proximity to or belonging in a Black community by virtue of abuse, trauma, non-acceptance, and non-belonging in a white community.”
