A of just one of my experiences with #JessicaKrug (or #JessLaBombalera as she went by when I knew her). I'll preface by saying my story is not even a drop in the ocean of what she did to BIPOC. 1/?

Jess was a member of a community I was a part of in NYC. This is not just a normal group, mind you. We're talking THE MOST loving, accepting, open place on earth, and a progressive one at that. Of all the safe spaces, this was it. 2/?

I'll save the stories of how Jess abused, attacked and terrorized members of that group for another time. But I'll simply state that people wanted to help advance change for BIPOC, created a safe space for her to share (and even teach), and she treated us all like shit. 3/?

Jess & I lived on the same train line, and rode home after class together. She'd gone off on a white individual during our workout class for "ruining" the Bronx by moving there. This hit home, because I was a low income white woman living in Inwood - another gentrifying area 4/?

Jess started talking the interaction on our walk, and I asked if I could ask her questions. (Cuz while still largely naive, I at least knew enough that it was not her responsibility to educate me or have the conversation if she didn't want to) 5/?

Jess spent the rest of the train ride telling me why I was the problem. Why me moving to Inwood was driving up prices (even though I moved there because it was literally the only place I could afford). 6/?

Why me living there would mean the existing restaurants and bodegas would close to become another hipster coffee shop (even though I was a regular at every shop on my street to the point where they knew me and my order and my dog). 7/?

How people like me moving to neighborhoods meant no more loud music, or playing on the sidewalks, or knowing your neighbors. She was angry and resentful about how she'd never experience the Bronx the way her family had for generations. 8/?

At every turn, I'd ask how I can help. I'd share what I was doing - not in defensiveness - but genuinely asking if there is more I could do to NOT be the problem. To KEEP Inwood as it was (because I LOVED it and didn't want it to change). Her only response was "Leave" 9/?

Let me clarify something here. I learned a TON in that conversation. The guilt I felt was a necessary feeling to understand the true impact of gentrification on existing communities. For that I am very grateful. 10/?

Jess was not interested in what I was doing, what I wanted to do, or that we agreed on every single thing we loved about our neighborhoods. She repeatedly shamed me, called me names, eye rolled, and made sure I knew that I was unwelcome uptown. 11/?

I thanked her for sharing, told her how sorry I was for what she'd experienced & that I was committed to doing my part. I left feeling like shit, but also accepting that white guilt has its name for a reason. Her not liking me was just evidence to me that I had to do better. 12/?

From that day on, Jess would bombard my pages with attacks on peers. Nothing they said was ever good enough. It was never ok to have a conversation with someone who was early in their understanding. She'd force herself in and then be mad she was involved. 13/?

So all these years later, I learn she's not white, and her family didn't live in the Bronx for generations. So, she made me feel shitty on purpose based on toxic, deep lies. She was shaming me for doing THE LEAST BAD THING SHE WAS DOING (aka a white chick moving uptown) 14/?

She appropriated the righteous anger of other groups as her own & used it as a weapon. She was too cowardly to have conversations about what WE as white people need to do. She avoided her own white guilt by pretending she wasn't . I hope you feel the shame now, "chica" 15/?