The anonymous author of the Medium post says that Vitolo-Haddad is from a white, affluent Italian American family that lives in Florida. Haddad, according to the post, is a name Vitolo-Haddad kept from their past marriage. The author -- described only as an affiliate of Madison -- notes that Krug also described herself as having different nonwhite backgrounds, including North African and Afro-Latinx.

"Though their claim to a POC identity was vague, the one consistency was their insistence that they were a constant target of acts of racism and that they came from some kind of nonwhite background," the anonymous author wrote, accusing Vitolo-Haddad of changing their appearance over time to appear nonwhite. "They referenced it frequently on social media and in interpersonal conversations. Their behavior was reminiscent of the way people who knew Krug have described her: perpetually in a victim status, but also perpetually shifting in terms of the specifics. Their stories lacked coherence, but they intimated an insider status that made (and makes) people hesitant to question them."

Vitolo-Haddad’s initial apology said that they were stepping down from all positions of organizational power at Madison, including their co-presidency of the Teaching Assistants’ Association and their teaching position.

Vitolo-Haddad did not agree to an interview request. Asked via email whether they would remain at Madison as a student only, with no teaching responsibilities, they said, “Those I harmed will be the ones to determine the consequences.”

The now former George Washington professor, Krug, has blamed her actions on past trauma and mental health issues. She may have benefited from her mimicry academically, though, and her critics are demanding a full accounting of that. At Portland State University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree, for instance, she was part of the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program. The program is for underrepresented students, including first-generation and low-income, but also minority students.

Krug, who did not respond to an interview request, is from a white Jewish family and went to a private preparatory school near Kansas City, Mo. A former classmate of hers there, Quinton Lucas -- now the mayor of Kansas City, Mo. -- recently retweeted a yearbook photo of them together, writing, “One of the stranger person-in-your-yearbook-photo-did-this stories I’ve stumbled upon. Yes, Jessica graduated a few years ahead of me. She was interesting back then, but it is really surprising she’s tried to pass as Black for 20 years. Her apology in reflection is warranted.”

More Questions Than Answers

What about Vitolo-Haddad? They said Wednesday via email that while they benefited “socially” in certain ways from the situation, they never applied for scholarships, fellowships or awards for people of color or identified as Black on any forms asking about their identification. They also said they’d never represented themself as Black in their published scholarship, which includes work on the rhetorical strategies of far-right groups.

Vitolo-Haddad directed further questions to the second apology post, which says there were “three separate instances,” otherwise unspecified, when they were asked if they were Black but did not say no. They apologized for entering Black organizing spaces and for “failing to correct varied misconceptions about my identity over the years, and for everything I did to aid or advance those ideas.”

In particular, they said, “I want to apologize for ever taking lies about Cuban roots at face value,” though it’s unclear to what they are referring. “Additionally, I want to apologize for how my failure to own up to these harmful decisions publicly made every conversation on social media about the varied ways I’ve been racialized a source of confusion and deception.”