A graduate student has stepped down from her teaching position after revealing she had been lying about being Black and Latino and “went along with however people saw me.
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CV Vitolo-Haddad is a graduate student of the University of Wisconsin-Madison who admitted taking over Black identity on numerous occasions despite knowing that she is actually a Sicilian.
In her viral posts, the teaching assistant apologized to people who are hurting because of her deception and claimed she’s still trying to sort out who she is.
“In trying to sort through parts of who I am, I’ve taken some very wrong turns. I never really owned up to them as they became apparent, nor recognized the trail of damage behind me,” the graduate wrote.
“The harm I caused is a result of my lack of courage, a preference for being vague and contradictory, uncertain and insecure. I want to make amends for every ounce of heartbreak and betrayal.”
In another post, Vitolo-Haddad, who “entered Black organizing spaces” under the pretense that she was Black, admitted she shouldn’t have faked her race in her battle against racism.
“What I know now is that perception is not reality. Race is not flat, it is a social construct rife with contradictions,” she wrote.
“Fighting racism never required dissociating myself from whiteness. In fact, it derailed the cause by centering my experience.”
Following her controversial posts about forged identities, Vitolo-Haddad has resigned from her teaching assistant position and claimed she “should not be teaching” before making amends because “education is build on a foundation of trust and accountability.”
The teaching assistant’s resignation has been confirmed by Meredith McGlone, a University of Wisconsin-Madison spokesperson.
“UW-Madison expects that people represent themselves authentically and accurately in all aspects of their academic work,” the University declared in a statement.
Replaced!