Hunter College professor Allyson Friedman, who made racist remarks caught on a hot mic at an Upper West Side school board meeting, has been placed on leave, Hunter President Nancy Cantor said Wednesday.
The announcement came one day after CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez revealed Friedman was still in the classroom while Hunter conducts an investigation.
felix matos rodriguez
Barry Williams/New York Daily News CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez
“We are investigating this matter under the university’s applicable conduct and nondiscrimination policies, which are described here,” Cantor wrote to student and faculty. “Pending the outcome of our investigation, the employee has been placed on leave.”
Friedman, who taught in Hunter’s biology department and is a parent at a local public school, was caught on hot mic during a Feb. 10 Community Education Council 3 meeting interrupting Black students fighting to save their school at risk of closure, saying: “They’re too dumb to know they’re in a bad school.”
“Apparently Martin Luther King said it: If you train a Black person well enough, they’ll know to use the back. You don’t have to tell them anymore,” she continued, incorrectly attributing the quote to the civil rights activist.
Her words seemed to recall a quote from Carter G. Woodson shared in an educational context earlier that meeting by the local schools superintendent.
In a statement earlier this week, Friedman has said she was explaining systemic racism to her child when she inadvertently unmuted, capturing only part of the conversation.
“My complete comments make clear these abhorrent views are not my own, nor were they directed at any student or group,” Friedman said. “I fully support these courageous students in their efforts to stop school closures. However, I recognize these comments caused harm and pain, while that was not my intent I do truly apologize.”
