In her Black-passing, Krug evokes Rachel Dolezal, the White woman who assumed a Black identity and rode out the Black cosplay so far as to become a leader in the Spokane, Wash., NAACP. “Karen” has emerged in 2020 to describe White women’s tendency to exploit their privilege to discipline Black people — for example, summoning police with sometimes devastating consequences. The Krug story offers a twisted example of asserting a different form of White privilege, the audacity of assuming the identity of a marginalized group. ADADKrug used her assumed identity to gain access, acclaim and a plush professorship at an expensive university. In 2020 in this country, Whiteness still carries a lot of privilege — including, perhaps, the privilege to get away with pretending to be Black.

Source: Washington Post September 06, 2020 18:46 UTC