A prominent activist and professor of African American history at George Washington University admitted that she was posing as a black woman.
Jessica Krug, 38, wrote on the Medium blog site that her various identities were built on “toxic soil of lies” and that she is in fact a white Jewish woman from Kansas City.
Revelation draws parallel with case of former civil rights activist Rachel Dolezal, who was reported by her parents in 2015 for lying about being black.
In the blog post, Ms Krug revealed that she had taken on many false identities, including “the North African blackness, the blackness rooted in the United States (and) the blackness of the Bronx rooted in the Caribbean.”
“I didn’t just claim these identities as my own when I had absolutely no right to do so – in doing so, it is the very embodiment of violence, theft and appropriation, of the myriad of ways non-black people continue to use and abuse black identities and cultures – but I have forged intimate relationships with loving and compassionate people who trusted and cared for me then that I did not deserve trust or compassion, ”she wrote.
“I built my life on a violent anti-black lie, and I lied in every breath I took … I’m not a cultured vulture. I am a cultural leech.
According to the George Washington University website, Ms. Krug has a doctorate and “is a historian of politics, ideas and cultural practices in Africa and the African Diaspora.”
She has also written several books on black history and culture.
In a now-deleted online biography, Ms Krug called herself an “unrepentant, unreformed kid of the neighborhood.”
Several writers and activists have tweeted their anger at the deception.
Many have attested to having met Ms Krug as Jess La Bombalera. A video uploaded under the pseudonym shows her as she criticizes “all those white New Yorkers who waited four hours with us to be able to speak and did not give up their time to native black and brown New Yorkers.”
Author Robert Jones Jr tweeted: “This morning I learned that Jessica A Krug aka Jess La Bombera, is a white woman who has been posing as a black woman for over 10 years.
“Many black women have tried to publicize this information and have been shut down in their attempts. I had no idea.
“I’ve shared about five of Jess’ posts here over the past three years and allowed her to take the mic occasionally when she told me that my analysis wasn’t thorough enough and that I had to let her speak “as a black woman”. “
Several editors, including RaceBaitr, have removed Ms Krug’s work from their websites following Thursday’s news.
In the Medium blog post, titled “The Truth and the Anti-Darkness of My Lies,” Ms. Krug blamed the psychological damage caused by childhood trauma for her lies.
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“But mental health issues can never, never can, explain or justify, approve or excuse, that despite knowing and regularly criticizing any non-black person who appropriates black people, my false identity was designed entirely from the fabric of black lives, ”she writes.
Sky News has contacted Jessica Krug and George Washington University for comment.