An American professor who presented herself as a black woman admitted to having lied about her ethnic origins and explained that she was in fact white, an admission fraught with consequences in a country where racial tensions are strong and cultural appropriation strongly denounced.
In a post written on the Medium platform, Jessica Krug, a history professor at the prestigious George Washington University in Washington, admitted having lied “most of (her) adult life”.
“I concealed my past as a white Jewish child from the residential suburbs of Kansas City in favor of several black identities that I was not allowed to claim: first Black from North Africa, then African-American , and finally Black from the Bronx, of Caribbean origin, ”wrote this woman, who is fair-skinned.
Asked by the CNN channel, one of her former students said that the teacher explained to her students that her origins in the Bronx were important to her, and that she had once quarreled with a student who assured her that rap was invented in Brooklyn, a typical New York debate.
These lies represent “the very example of violence, theft, appropriation and the many ways in which non-Black people continue to abuse black identities and cultures,” wrote Jessica Krug, calling herself “Cultural leech”.
Also according to CNN, this professor specializing in the history of Africa and colonization read aloud the word “negro” in the texts, an ultra-taboo term in the United States, that only black people can pronounce.
“Dr. Krug will not teach this semester,” said George Washington University on Friday, without further details on the status of the teacher, but specifying that she is continuing her examination of the situation.
“We are aware of the pain this situation has caused to many in our community and recognize that many students, teachers and alumni are suffering from it.”
In the United States, especially in academia and progressive circles, cultural appropriation is frowned upon.
In official censuses, where the ethnic origin of Americans is recorded, it is however possible to identify as desired.
A few years ago, an activist, Rachel Dolezal, had talked about her by explaining “to identify as black” when she was actually white.