Earlier this year, an established and esteemed Afro-Latina professor Jessica Krug broke the Black side of Twitter news by coming out as a Jewish white woman. Her friends, colleagues and students communicated their shame toward themselves and anger at Krug for deceiving them because how can someone of Caucasian descent possibly pass as a person of color and that information not immediately be realized?
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Her reason for finally fessing up to her disguise? Krug chalked it up to “mental illness”, admitting that she’s not a culture vulture but a culture leech. In the article, titled “The Truth, and the Anti-Black Violence of My Lies”, Krug repeatedly rebukes her behavior and accepts that she may never receive forgiveness for her actions. The line that sticks out most in her explanation is,

“Intention never matters more than impact.”

In these “woke” times, people in power are now steadily being called out and dragged off their high horses for situations surrounding cultural appropriation, racial discrimination and getting their foot caught in their mouths when they speak on topics they shouldn’t. More specifically, many famous female celebrities were labeled  with the term “blackfishing,” a word citing non-Black people pretending to be or altering their appearance to look ethnically Black. Influencers such as Nikita Dragun, Kim Kardashian and singer Rita Ora have had their fair share of Insta pics with darker skin or Black-inspired hairstyles that’s caused debate about the true intentions behind their constructed  appearances.

“With what she has termed her ‘audaciously deceptive’ appropriation of an Afro-Caribbean identity, she has betrayed the trust of countless current and former students, fellow scholars of Africana Studies, colleagues in our department and throughout the historical discipline, as well as community activists in New York City and beyond,” the letter read.
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The university rightfully called into question the validity of Krug’s research on behalf of the History department and teachings on Africana studies. They even held a virtual town hall for students to share their anger and concern over her confession.

The self-punishment script may lead you to feel an ounce of sympathy, but the pure open minded sufferance she has toward the fire she lit around herself is jolting. She acknowledges what she did was wrong and how she took advantage of people’s love, attention and compassion but why doesn’t that immediately get her out of hot water like it does celebrities? The answer lies within the impact she clearly recognizes she’s made as a professional in her career. In the same way that Krug may not know what’s in store for her future as a born-again non POC, the outcome of her work as a scholar and professor who published a book is up in the air, as well. 
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During her time in academia, Krug had published well-reviewed works of Colombian, Brazilian, and West African histories. Her most notable work, “Fugitive Modernities: Kisama and the Politics of Freedom,” investigates the experience of “those escaping expanding states and the transatlantic slave trade abuse,” and was picked for multiple book awards in December 2018. Despite not generating any profit from her scholarly work, Krug’s publisher Gisela Fosado concluded that Duke University Press is “committed to moving all proceeds from the book to a fund that will support the work of Black and Latinx scholars.” Fosado spoke out on the presses website about Krug impersonating false identities “in the most racist way possible, through caricatures and stereotypes” and felt she should take the blame for taking funding and opportunities that were “earmarked for non-white scholars.” Krug has also been interviewed by and written articles for Black publications such as Essence magazine and RaceBaitr, which have all been archived and removed from their platforms. 
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"She changed her hair, her background story, how she interacted with others, and stopped seeing her family, which makes her a transracial individual: a person who crosses racial boundaries and asserts a racial identity for themselves which differs from their birth race."

Let’s compare Krug’s drama to the OG transracial queen herself, Rachel Dolezal. Like Krug, Dolezal also made her living as a college professor then later turned her career toward activism. The woman went so far as to become the president of a N.A.A.C.P (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) chapter in Spokane, Washington, which was founded to advance justice for African Americans and actively encourages interracial allyship. Nevertheless, after vehemently convincing herself and failing to convince others that she is  “definitely not white” in an interview with NBC, she ultimately had to give up her role serving the Black community with civil rights and now serves them by doing their hair. Unlike Krug, Dolezal issued no apology and has been living out her fantasy as a Black woman since 2015 with no remorse. 

You could say it’s unlikely that Krug would have such an easy getaway to land on but with Dolezal’s results after her backlash, it’s unclear whether she’ll be a justified victim of cancel culture or left alone to live out the rest of her life as who she wants to be. These women could have put up a united front and stood with Black people as their born race but instead chose to steal and cultivate an racial experience they were never meant to have. Sadly, when you think of these women and what they went through to be a part of this culture and community, all you can think about is the fraudulence of the situation, not the hard work they put in as the imposters that they were.
Unfortunately, the hard work Krug earned as a minority went away along with her double life because it’s not easy to separate the artist from the art. There will always be a nagging feeling that what she wrote, taught and advocated was not honest in its approach or delivery. Consequently, her intent just isn’t strong enough to exist alongside her hurtful impact. f