The George Washington University professor who ignited online backlash last week after admitting she pretended to be Black has resigned from her position, according to the university.
Jessica Krug was an African history professor at GWU, but she was pulled from teaching duties amid calls for her to step down after she admitted to lying about her race in a Medium blog post Sept. 3. On Wednesday, the university announced that Krug, 38, would no longer serve in her role at GWU.
“Dr. Krug has resigned her position, effective immediately. Her classes for this semester will be taught by other faculty members, and students in those courses will receive additional information this week,” read the announcement.
In last week’s post, Krug said she eschewed her “lived experience as a white Jewish child in suburban Kansas City” and had assumed identities she had no right to claim. Those identities included “first North African Blackness, then US rooted Blackness, then Caribbean rooted Bronx Blackness,” she wrote in the piece on Medium.
She previously wrote scholarly articles in outlets including Essence and RaceBaitr, a website exploring race. Her academic work, including the 2018 book “Fugitive Modernities: Kisama and the Politics of Freedom,” focuses on the politics and culture of African and African diaspora societies in the early modern period.
The essay conjured a storm of social media reactions with some, many who worked with Krug on social justice issues, expressing outrage with her disingenuous display as a Black woman.
Many drew comparisons to the secret life of Rachel Dolezal, who led friends and colleagues to believe that she was Black and became the local NAACP president in Spokane, Washington, before her parents came forward in 2015 to out her as a white woman, causing a national uproar.
Some said Krug’s misrepresentation was worse because some of her writings and online comments pitted Black and white people against each other.
RaceBaitr said it had removed Krug’s work from its website.
“Her charade has taken her into many Black sacred spaces, including this one,” RaceBaitr said in a message on Twitter. “We apologize for platforming her work and not taking seriously enough some of your warnings.”
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