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Another strange Rachel Dolezal case

pmv said:
I don't understand the motivation for this. So odd. And then choosing to voluntarily confess to it. Has to be a mental health thing, surely?

edition.cnn.com

A White professor says she has been pretending to be Black for her entire professional career | CNN

Jessica Krug, an associate professor at George Washington University, has written extensively about Africa, Latin America, the diaspora and identity, all while claiming her own Black and Latina heritage.
edition.cnn.com edition.cnn.com
Click to expand...

CNN article doesn't say what I suspected to be the case, but this article does:

Ms Krug's post did not give a reason for her decision to admit her deception, nor its timing. However, screenwriter Hari Ziyad said her admission came "because she had been found out".

"Jess Krug... is someone I called a friend up until this morning when she gave me a call admitting to everything written here. She didn't do it out of benevolence," he wrote on Twitter.
Click to expand...

I don't know the credibility of the source, but I'd be very surprised if her admission was caused by anything other than her getting caught.

Also, as to mental health:

She blamed her lies on mental health issues and trauma experienced in her early years, although she said this was not an excuse for her actions.
Click to expand...

www.bbc.com

Jessica Krug: George Washington University professor says she lied about being black

A blog written by Jessica Krug, a white woman, admits to falsely claiming black identity for years.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
I just find it really hard to imagine how one could consciously maintain such an absurd charade as this woman did for a lifetime - unless it was driven by some kind of mental-health compulsion that wasn't a question of choice. It does appear as if she got some career benefit out of the pretence, of course, but even so, I just don't get how one could keep that charade going without cracking up under the stress of it.

It's possible I'm just not extrovert enough to be able to imagine keeping up an actor-like 'performance' unless one was driven by something that made it not a question of choice. Perhaps it comes more easily to some.
 
pmv said:
I don't understand the motivation for this. So odd. And then choosing to voluntarily confess to it. Has to be a mental health thing, surely?

edition.cnn.com

A White professor says she has been pretending to be Black for her entire professional career | CNN

Jessica Krug, an associate professor at George Washington University, has written extensively about Africa, Latin America, the diaspora and identity, all while claiming her own Black and Latina heritage.
edition.cnn.com edition.cnn.com
Click to expand...

I have a family member who plays a black card that doesn't have an official seal.
I'm having trouble responding to this thread because I keep making my self laugh thinking about it.
 
She apologized for what she calls her "continued appropriation of a Black Caribbean identity," saying she was wrong, unethical, immoral, anti-Black and colonial.
"I am not a culture vulture," she wrote. "I am a culture leech."
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According to the manual, if she is hijacking Black Caribbean identity then their is a chance that she is racist against on African americans.


This part cracked me up
Anmol Goraya, a junior at George Washington studying international affairs, says she took an introductory history class with Krug in spring 2019. At the time, Krug was one of her favorite professors -- Goraya said she seemed like an energetic woman of color being unapologetic about who she was, coming to class in heels, huge hoop earrings and even leopard print.
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Meh honestly I could care less. If someone wants to be black let them be black as long as they truly want to be that and it's not some sort of joke.
 
pmv said:
I just find it really hard to imagine how one could consciously maintain such an absurd charade as this woman did for a lifetime - unless it was driven by some kind of mental-health compulsion that wasn't a question of choice. It does appear as if she got some career benefit out of the pretence, of course, but even so, I just don't get how one could keep that charade going without cracking up under the stress of it.

It's possible I'm just not extrovert enough to be able to imagine keeping up an actor-like 'performance' unless one was driven by something that made it not a question of choice. Perhaps it comes more easily to some.
Click to expand...

Both she and Dolezal had jobs/careers stemming from their deception. Not only that, praise, adulation, respect. Those are material and social benefits. People have committed fraud for much less. I suspect her "mental illness" is her lack of morality.

As to the difficulty of maintaining a facade and a con your entire life, I couldn't manage it either. But clearly some people can. Just look at the man who is POTUS right now.
 
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pmv said:
I just find it really hard to imagine how one could consciously maintain such an absurd charade as this woman did for a lifetime - unless it was driven by some kind of mental-health compulsion that wasn't a question of choice. It does appear as if she got some career benefit out of the pretence, of course, but even so, I just don't get how one could keep that charade going without cracking up under the stress of it.

It's possible I'm just not extrovert enough to be able to imagine keeping up an actor-like 'performance' unless one was driven by something that made it not a question of choice. Perhaps it comes more easily to some.
Click to expand...
If you tell the same lie enough, you start to believe it yourself.

Some of my cousins are card carrying Indians (fairly low percentage). The look just as white as me and I've never heard or seen them talk about Indian culture, never took their kids to any events hosted by the Tribe, etc. But they'll gladly claim it the second they can get some benefit from it. Two of them are also pretty racist, and I've had them explain to me multiple times while Indians deserve special treatment while blacks don't. To me it is somewhat similar, although they have the credentials, they do not experience the life of a Native American.
 
Sunburn74 said:
Meh honestly I could care less. If someone wants to be black let them be black as long as they truly want to be that and it's not some sort of joke.
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Seems like we would end up with people shouting about racial appropriation.
In a world where some people attempt to become livestock, this doesn't seem all that radical.
 
OMG—saw the initial reports on this and I was like “Damn, she reminds me of Rachel Dolezal.” I don’t realize it WAS Rachel Dolezal!!! Ha!!!
 
Regarding the OP, I wonder if its like some very white folks claiming to have Native American heritage because it gives them more authenticity as "Americans". They've literally have the blood of the OG Americans.

I suspect cases like this might *start* as someone who is not Black or Latin feeling a strong sense of commonality and association with those histories and cultures, but never being able to really authentically immerse in those cultures without trying to "pass".

Over time the act and the person sort of become one and the lie and truth get smudgy and the motivations (as was mentioned money, tenure, respect) start getting muddled and it all goes to shit.
 
GodisanAtheist said:
Regarding the OP, I wonder if its like some very white folks claiming to have Native American heritage because it gives them more authenticity as "Americans". They've literally have the blood of the OG Americans.
Click to expand...
Apparently this was sometimes used as a cover for why a white Southerner had darker skin when it's actually African heritage (didn't find out about this until after I found out I had 0% Native American DNA and greater than 0% African DNA)
 
Greenman said:
If they're teaching knitting, no they shouldn't. If they're shoving farm equipment up their behinds, then yes, they should.
Click to expand...
Yeah but why does that matter?

If an underpaid elementary school teacher has an OF page, why does it matter (to the parents)? The kids shouldn't be looking at it anyway as its illegal for them and it in no way affects what happens in the classroom. OF is not illegal and its subsidizing stuff that society would otherwise pay for with taxes (teachers). Plus most of it is pay to see (meaning even if found you have to pay money to see it anyway). As far as I can tell a theoretical OF page is not much different than a teacher having a theoretical private instagram account.

I'm just trying to grasp what the big deal.
 
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