A white Jewish professor based in the United States has admitted to lying about being black for years.

Jessica Krug, 38, an associate professor at George Washington University, said in a Medium blog post on Thursday that she assumed fake north African and Caribbean identities for years.

“To an escalating degree over my adult life, I have eschewed my lived experience as a white Jewish child in suburban Kansas City under various assumed identities within a Blackness that I had no right to claim,” she wrote.

In her blog post, Ms Krug said she “should absolutely be cancelled” and described her behaviour as “unethical, immoral, anti-black, colonial.”

She also suggested the deception could be linked to traumatic early childhood and teen years.

“Mental health issues likely explain why I assumed a false identity initially, as a youth, and why I continued and developed it for so long; the mental health professionals from whom I have been so belatedly seeking help assure me that this is a common response to some of the severe trauma that marked my early childhood and teen years,” she wrote.

The university told the JC on Friday it was aware of the post and was looking into the situation but could not comment further.

She is an “historian of politics, ideas, and cultural practices in Africa and the African Diaspora“ and her areas of expertise include African American History, imperialism and colonialism, according to the university’s website.

The post sparked outrage and ridicule online, with many drawing comparisons to Rachel Dolezal, a civil rights activist who drew controversy after it was revealed both her parents were white.