Who Is Jessica Krug? White Professor Pretending To Be Black Dubbed 2020's Rachel Dolezal

On Thursday, Jessica A. Krug’s name became a trending topic on Twitter in the U.S. after the George Washington University history professor confessed to lying about being a Black woman.

In a blog post published by Medium, Krug, who described herself as a “white Jewish child” from suburban Kansas City, lied about her race for years. She has admitted to taking on several racial identities including “North African Blackness, then US rooted Blackness, then Caribbean rooted Bronx Blackness.”

In her lengthy post, Krug apologized for the deception and admitted that she became completely enveloped in her lies with “no exit plan or strategy.”

The GWU associate professor, whose bio states she specializes in politics, ideas, and cultural practices in Africa and the African Diaspora with a particular interest in West Central Africa and Black transnational cultural studies, appeared to suggest that her lies about her race were caused by underlying mental health issues.

“To say that I clearly have been battling some unaddressed mental health demons for my entire life, as both an adult and child, is obvious,” she wrote.

“Mental health issues likely explain why I assumed a false identity initially, as a youth, and why I continued and developed it for so long; the mental health professionals from whom I have been so belatedly seeking help assure me that this is a common response to some of the severe trauma that marked my early childhood and teen years.”

Calling herself a “coward,” and “a culture leech,” Krug insisted she “should absolutely be canceled” over her lies.

“I have built my life on a violent anti-Black lie, and I have lied in every breath I have taken. There are no words in any language to express the depth of my remorse, but then again: there shouldn’t be. Words are never the point,” she wrote.

Krug’s confession also caused former Washington state NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal’s name to trend on Twitter on Thursday. In 2015, Dolezal, who was identifying and passing as a black woman, came under fire after her parents told the Coeur d’Alene Press that their daughter was caucasian.