WASHINGTON (AP) — The George Washington University history professor who confessed to posing as a Black woman for her entire career has resigned.
The university announced on Twitter that Jessica Krug, "has resigned her position, effective immediately."
"Update regarding Jessica Krug: Dr. Krug has resigned her position, effective immediately," the university tweeted. "Her classes for this semester will be taught by other faculty members, and students in those courses will receive additional information this week."
Update regarding Jessica Krug: 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.
— GW University (@GWtweets) September 9, 2020
Krug, who taught African American history and specialized in issues of African culture and diaspora, admitted last week in a blog post that she had presented herself as Afro-Caribbean from New York when she is in fact a white Jewish woman from suburban Kansas City.
Krug said she has mental health issues, but added that that was not an excuse.
"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," Krug wrote in the blog post. "That I claimed belonging with living people and ancestors to whom and for whom my being is always a threat at best and a death sentence at worst. I am not a culture vulture. I am a culture leech."
She expressed deep remorse and blamed her years-long deception on "unaddressed mental health demons" dating back to childhood.
