I knew #JessicaKrug in Grad school as a granddaughter to an Algerian Jewish grandfather (circa 2006). Our circle of friends was so racially and ethnically diverse that our main concerns were ideas and drinking cheap beer. We might have been the ground zero for 'Afro-politan' Jess

What has been missing in the debate around #JessicaKrug is that she wore her blackfaces in order to pass in front of white gatekeepers at every stage in her academic career. The history dept at UW-Madison was mostly white, so her admissions committee was mostly white.

Her advisor and dissertation committee would have been white. The hiring and tenure review committee at George Washington U would have been mostly white coming from a mostly white history department. Her book reviewers and editors at Duke UP, the deans, provosts, trustees etc

She was playing black to those that mattered the most and would question the least. And black and people color along the way were collateral damage, part of her act. In other words the story is not about her but about just how white African studies and academia in general are.

For me then the story is really about how she is a product of African Studies as a structurally racist field. For background, please read this 1996 debate on Philip Curtin who argued that allowing black academics into African history would ghettoize it. http://kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/50/304/32-130-1EE9-84-ACAS%20Bulletin%20Winter%2096%20opt.pdf