Jessica Krug

Jessica Krug
Born	c. 1982 (age 41–42)
Nationality	American
Other names	Jess "La Bombalera"[1] Jessica Cruz[2][3][4]
Education	The Barstow School (1999)[5][6]
Alma mater	University of Kansas Portland State University, B.A. (2005)[7] University of Wisconsin–Madison, Ph.D. (2012)[8]
Occupations	Historian author activist essayist
Known for	Controversy revealing false claims of racial and cultural identities
Awards	Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship (2009)[8]

Jessica Anne Krug (born c. 1982) is an American historian, author, and activist who taught at George Washington University (GWU) from 2012 to 2020, eventually becoming a tenured associate professor of history. Her publications include Fugitive Modernities: Kisama and the Politics of Freedom, which was a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Prize and the Harriet Tubman Prize.

In September 2020, Krug revealed that she had misrepresented her race and ethnicity during her career, and resigned from her position at GWU.

Biography

Jessica Anne Krug—who pronounces her surname Cruz^[2] (/kruːz/ or /kruːs/, kruuz or kruus in General American)—was raised in a Jewish family^[6][9] in Overland Park, Kansas,^[10] in the Kansas City metropolitan area. She attended Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy^[2] and The Barstow School in Kansas City,^[11] a co-ed private college prep school in south Kansas City.^[5] She later attended the University of Kansas without claiming to be a person of color^[6][9] before transferring to Portland State University,^[11] where she earned a bachelor's degree in 2005.^[12] In 2012, Krug earned a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison,^[13][1][2] "one of the nation's most prestigious African-history programs".^[11] In 2009, she had been awarded a $45,000 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship.^[14] Her doctoral adviser there was James Sweet; eventually, when Krug extended her thesis and published it as a book, she did not acknowledge Sweet.^[15]

Krug has stated that she lives with unaddressed mental health issues,^[16][17] and that she began to present herself as a light-skinned person of color as a juvenile to escape from trauma and emotional difficulties.^[17]

Career

Krug taught university classes in the Washington D.C. area, and lived in East Harlem in New York City.^[18][19] Krug began teaching history at George Washington University (GWU) in 2012.^[8] She gained tenure in 2018.^[11] As of 2020, she was an associate professor.^[8] Krug has authored articles and a book relating to African American history and Latin America.^[8] She has published essays in Essence and at the race-exploring website RaceBaitR.^[20][21][22] Krug received financial support from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture that led to the publication of her book Fugitive Modernities.^[23]

Fugitive Modernities

Krug is the author of Fugitive Modernities: Kisama and the Politics of Freedom,^[24] a book about the Quiçama people in Angola and within diaspora, especially in Brazil.^[8][25] The book was a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Prize^[26] and the Harriet Tubman Prize.^[27] In Fugitive Modernities, Krug engages in a "rigorous examination of identity formation" of Kisama,^[28] a mountainous region in Angola that became a destination for those fleeing the slave trade in the late 16th century.^[29] Krug's book was the first history of the Kisama region. She argued that "Kisama allows us to imagine a more humane and less brutalized form of interpersonal relationship in which the structures erected by states to constrain us are overcome in favor of shared liberation."^[30]

Racial identity controversy

Krug has offered various narratives concerning her race and ethnicity. She has said that she is half Algerian-American and half German-American.^[31] She has also said that she is a Bronx-bred Afro-"boricua" (Afro–Puerto Rican)^{[8][16][32][23]} and has used the name "Jess La Bombalera".^[2][11] A junior scholar noticed that Krug's stated race/ethnicity had changed from part-Algerian–part-German to Afro–Puerto Rican. Word of this discrepancy reached Professor Yomaira C. Figueroa-Vásquez of Michigan State University, who, upon researching the matter, discovered that Krug came from the Kansas City area and had Jewish parents.^[2]

In a September 3, 2020 blog post, Krug said: "I have eschewed my lived experience as a white Jewish child in suburban Kansas City under various assumed identities within a Blackness that I had no right to claim: first North African Blackness, then US rooted Blackness, then Caribbean rooted Bronx Blackness."^{[8][16][32][23]} Krug's disclosure drew international media attention.^[6][33] Her September 3 blog post went viral. By the close of that day, "a now-infamous video of Krug calling herself 'Jess La Bombalera' and speaking in a D-list imitation Bronx accent was all over the internet".^[11]

Hari Ziyad, the editor of RaceBaitr, said Krug had only come forward with the revelation of her racial deceptions because they had been discovered, and were about to be made public against her wishes.^[1] Similarly, Figueroa-Vásquez asserted that pending public revelations of Krug's true racial identity prompted her confession.^[34] Figueroa, believing that Krug "took up some of the very few—very few—resources and spaces that there are available to Black and Latino scholars and use those to her advantage," called for "a form of restitution for the things that she [Krug] took. It's egregious."^[35] Figueroa and Hunter College's Yarimar Bonilla called Krug's various cultural appropriations a form of minstrelsy.^[3] Figueroa also noted that Krug had falsely claimed that her parents had been drug addicts and her mother a sex worker; Figueroa described Krug's actions as "preying on the white imagination, [pulling] from some of the worst stereotypes that there are about black people and Puerto Rican people, and using that as a cloak for her identity".^[36] Describing Krug as a "minstrel act", Illinois State University's Touré F. Reed asserted that Krug did not appropriate legitimate black culture but rather its "racist caricature".^[37]

Duke University Press, the publisher of Krug's Fugitive Modernities, said that all proceeds from her book will be donated to a fund that will assist black and Latino scholars.^[38]

Resignation

Krug had told her colleagues at GWU that she was Afro-Latina, and that she had been raised in the Bronx by a Puerto Rican mother who was abusive and addicted to drugs. In her classes, she occasionally used Spanglish and spoke of her Puerto Rican heritage.^[11] Following Krug's disclosure of her misrepresentation, George Washington University's history department asked her to resign her tenured professorship, stating: "With her conduct, Dr. Krug has raised questions about the veracity of her own research and teaching".^[39] GWU cancelled her classes after the scandal.^[40] On September 9, 2020, GWU confirmed that Krug had resigned from the university.^[41]

See also

• List of impostors

References

1. Levenson, Michael; Schuessler, Jennifer (September 3, 2020). "University Investigates Claim That White Professor Pretended to Be Black". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 5, 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
2. Jackson, Lauren Michele (September 12, 2020). "The Layered Deceptions of Jessica Krug, the Black-Studies Professor Who Hid That She Is White". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on September 12, 2020. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
3. Figueroa-Vásquez, Yomaira; Bonilla, Yarimar (September 9, 2020). "A white scholar pretended to be black and Latina for years. This is modern minstrelsy". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 11, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
4. Sell, Laura (September 10, 2020). "Editorial Director Gisela Fosado Speaks Out About Jessica A. Krug". Archived from the original on September 14, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
5. Stark, Cortlynn (September 4, 2020). "'Surprising': Professor posing as Black woman went to school with Kansas City mayor". The Kansas City Star. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
6. "Jessica Krug, white college professor who pretended to be Black for years, grew up in Johnson County". Shawnee Mission Post. September 4, 2020. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
7. "Faculty | University Bulletin 2020-2021". GWU.edu. Washington, DC: The George Washington University. September 4, 2020. Archived from the original on September 4, 2020. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
8. Lumpkin, Lauren; Svrluga, Susan (September 3, 2020). "White GWU professor admits she falsely claimed Black identity". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 5, 2020. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
9. Cramer, Philissa (September 4, 2020). "Jessica Krug, the professor who faked an Afro-Latina identity, went to Jewish day school in Kansas City". jta.org. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Archived from the original on September 6, 2020. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
10. "Kansas City Star School Notes: Hyman Brand Academy". May 17, 1995. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved September 19, 2020 – via newsbank.com.
11. Kashino, Marisa (January 27, 2021). "The True Story of Jess Krug, the White Professor Who Posed as Black for Years". Washingtonian.com. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
12. Flaherty, Colleen (September 10, 2020). "More White Lies". InsideHigherEd.com. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
13. Asmelash, Leah (September 4, 2020). "A White professor says she has been pretending to be Black for her entire professional career". CNN.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2021. Retrieved September 27, 2021.
14. "FY 2009 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program" (PDF). ed.gov. US Dept. of Education. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 15, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
15. Green, Emma (March 7, 2023). "The Right Side of History". The New Yorker.
16. Krug, Jessica A. (September 3, 2020). "The Truth, and the Anti-Black Violence of My Lies". Medium. Archived from the original on September 4, 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
17. Mele, Christopher (September 4, 2020). "Professor Investigated for Posing as Black Won't Teach This Term, Officials Say". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 5, 2020. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
18. "Jessica Krug resigns from George Washington University after pretending to be black". dailystarpost.com. September 10, 2020. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
19. "East Harlem Resident And Professor Jessica Krug Admits She Is Not Black (Update)". Harlem World Magazine. September 8, 2020. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
20. Reinstein, Julia (September 4, 2020). "A University Is Investigating After A White Professor Admitted To Pretending To Be Black Her Entire Career". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
21. Krug, Jess (April 21, 2017). "We'll never create a freer future by role playing the past". RaceBaitR. Archived from the original on May 19, 2020.
22. Krug, Jessica A. (July 31, 2019). "Somos Más Y No Tenemos Miedo: What The Puerto Rican Uprising Means For Black Political Imagination". Essence. Archived from the original on August 31, 2020.
23. Noor, Poppy (September 3, 2020). "White US professor admits she has pretended to be Black for years". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 3, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
24. "Fugitive Modernities". dukeupress.edu. Duke University Press. Archived from the original on September 4, 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
25. "Jessica Krug and Vincent Brown Discuss Resistance in the Caribbean". macmillan.yale.edu. Yale MacMillan Center Council on Latin American & Iberian Studies. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
26. "Yale announces 2019 Frederick Douglass Book Prize Finalists". macmillan.yale.edu. Yale MacMillan Center Council on Latin American & Iberian Studies. August 9, 2019. Archived from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
27. "2019 Harriet Tubman Prize Finalists". lapiduscenter.org. Lapidus Center. Archived from the original on September 6, 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
28. Lovejoy, Henry B. (March 2020). "Fugitive Modernities in West Central Africa: Kisama and the Politics of Freedom by Jessica A. Krug". The Journal of African History. 61 (1): 137–138. doi:10.1017/S0021853720000225. ISSN 0021-8537. S2CID 216233498. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
29. Domingues da Silva, Daniel B. (April 2, 2020). "Fugitive modernities: Kisama and the politics of freedom: by Jessica A. Krug, Durham, Duke University Press, 2018, 280pp., $25.95 (pbk), ISBN 978-1-4780-0154-6". Slavery & Abolition. 41 (2): 424–426. doi:10.1080/0144039X.2020.1752481. ISSN 0144-039X. S2CID 221062679. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
30. Green, Toby (May 1, 2020). "Fugitive Modernities: Kisama and the Politics of Freedom". Hispanic American Historical Review. 100 (2): 343–344. doi:10.1215/00182168-8178391. ISSN 0018-2168. S2CID 218783860.
31. Callahan, Maureen (December 30, 2020). "Maureen Callahan: Hilaria Baldwin's entire life is a fake -- it's not just her name". foxnews.com. FOX News. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
32. Koop, Chacour (September 3, 2020). "'I am a culture leech.' Professor posing as Black woman is a white Kansas City native". The Kansas City Star. Archived from the original on September 4, 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2020 – via kansascity.com.
33. "US university investigating professor who apparently pretended to be black". The Irish Times. September 5, 2020. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2021.
34. Lapin, Tamar (September 3, 2020). "Professor Jessica Krug only admitted she lied about being black after getting caught, pal says". NYPost.com. New York Post. Archived from the original on September 6, 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
35. Kennedy, Merrit (September 10, 2020). "George Washington Professor Who Reportedly Faked Being Black Resigns". NPR.org. US: National Public Radio. Archived from the original on September 14, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
36. "GWU Investigating Whether White Professor Invented Her Black Identity". NPR.org. National Public Radio. Archived from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
37. "'Jess La Bombalera' and the Pathologies of Racial Authenticity". jacobinmag.com. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
38. Flood, Alison (September 14, 2020). "Publisher denounces Jessica Krug for pretending to be black". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on September 14, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
39. "Our Statement on Jessica Krug". history.columbian.gwu.edu. Department of History, Columbian College of Arts & Sciences, The George Washington University. Archived from the original on September 5, 2020. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
40. "Jessica Krug: university cancels classes by white academic who posed as Black". The Guardian. September 5, 2020. Archived from the original on September 8, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
41. Asmelash, Leah (September 10, 2020). "Professor who lied about being Black resigns from George Washington University". CNN. Archived from the original on September 10, 2020. Retrieved September 10, 2020.