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Activist and former professor of African-American history at George Washington University, Dr. Jessica Krug, a.k.a. “Jess Bombalera,” has been pretending to be a Black Latinx woman from The Bronx for years, despite actually being a white woman from Kansas City, Kansas. Reminiscent of Rachel Dolezal’s delusions of Blackness, I rolled my eyes all the way to the white meat when Dr. Krug’s “confession” went viral.
Stories like Dr. Krug’s and Rachel Dolezal’s are both troubling and damaging, and if we want to move forward toward an equitable future, we need to treat these cases as the dangers they are, and not momentary, laughable entertainment. In fact, it’s crucial for the furthering of racial justice that white people understand the necessary value of staying in their appropriate lane. If they could only get past their self-centered desires to be saviors and stars in the Black community, they could then realize that this is what’s key to being truly helpful to Black people, Black causes and Black liberation as white allies — rather than disingenuously centering themselves in Black communities.
Dr. Krug’s version of “acting Black,” by gesticulating and slipping in and out of AAVE (African American Vernacular English) — and done under the guise of advocating for Black communities — is nothing more than a modern-day minstrel show that serves absolutely no one but herself. After all, co-opting Black culture, Black spaces and Latinx dance floors can often be a thriving, lucrative business — just ask the Kardashians.
Dr. Krug is also yet another example that Black is cool, as long as it's in an acceptably light/white shade. This blatant colorism speaks volumes, not only about Dr. Krug and her moral standing, but also about the culture that embraced her. What white women posing as light-skinned Black and Latinx women don’t realize is that they’ve walked themselves into a place of privilege within a whole other set of social politics in communities of color — but then again, those with inherent privilege are often blind to their own advantages.
“Light skin color as an indicator of beauty, can operate as a form of social capital for women,” said Margaret Hunter in “The Persistent Problem of Colorism: Skin Tone, Status, and Inequality” (July 2007). “This social capital can be transformed into other forms of capital and used to gain status in jobs, housing, schools and social networks.”
While an associate tenured professor — a coveted academic space to occupy — Dr. Krug researched and taught the African and Latin diaspora, and used her position as currency, in conjunction with her perceived light-skinned Afro-Latinxness, to further advance her career, her activism, and the production and promotion of her book — which was a finalist in 2019 for two prestigious awards that come with financial gain: The Harriet Tubman Prize ($7,500); and The Frederick Douglass Book Prize ($25,000).
Not only do Dr. Krug’s harmful and egotistical shenanigans tarnish her important, heavily researched work, but they also serve to highlight the missed opportunity presented to her naturally in using her privilege as a white Jewish woman to be heard in white spaces in a way that Black and Latinx people wouldn’t be heard; as well as the missed opportunity for creating solidarity via the shared and storied histories between Jewish and Black people. Furthermore, her actions give legs to naysayers’ arguments against identity politics and Affirmative Action, by bolstering the beliefs of those who deny the existence of white supremacy and systemic racism and attempt to kick the legs out from under anyone that has been halted and victimized under structural oppression.
Since her “outing,” Dr. Jessica Krug will now live as a white woman. Of this entire episode, she claims to have been “battling some unaddressed mental health demons.” While I don’t want to undermine the realities of mental health struggles, we all know that, as a white woman in America, she will no doubt lean into the intrinsic value of her natural-born privilege which will soon find her gloried in forgiveness, solace and ultimately on a path to redemption; an all too common story that this country rejoices over — if you’re white.
At the end of this story, Dr. Krug will be alright, but Black folks will have to continue to fight real struggles living in our own real skin every day. One day, maybe white people will finally realize that there’s a marked difference in “acting Black” and being Black.
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Desiree K. Robinson is a doctoral student in health education and behavior studies at Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition, she is a health and lifestyle journalist, where she explores the intersection of art, culture, race, gender, politics, food justice and the environment. Desi is also a Fellow with Leaders of Color New York, a program that supports Black and brown leaders with the training and tools they need to run for elected positions.
