Allyson Friedman, a science professor in New York City, has gone viral after making a ‘blatantly racist’ comment during a call.
During a Community Education Council meeting on 10 February, a debate was taking place around Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to close a number of schools on Manhattan’s West Side.
And the associate professor of biology at Hunter College allegedly made the remark after a Black eight-grade (year nine in the UK) student expressed their concerns over their school possibly getting shut down.
Seemingly unaware her mic was unmuted, Friedman said: “They’re too dumb to know they’re in a bad school.”
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Following her remarks, Hunter College is now ‘reviewing’ the situation with those on the call left visibly and audibly stunned by the ‘abhorrent’ words used.
Friedman had continued to say as she virtually attended the meeting: “If you train a Black person well enough, they’ll know to use the back.
“You don’t have to tell them anymore.”
The New York Times reports that the professor was making reference to a comment made earlier in the meeting by the school district’s acting superintendent, Reginald Higgins.
He had referred to Carter G. Woodson, the scholar who had studied the US’ history of the Black diaspora – AKA, ‘the Father of Black History’.
"If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told,” he wrote in his 1933 book The Mis-education of the Negro.
Another man could be heard on the call, calling her out for the comment as he said: “Allyson Friedman, what you’re saying is absolutely hearable here. You’ve got to stop.”
In a statement obtained by The Post, Hunter College said it was ‘aware’ of the ‘abhorrent remarks’ made as it said: “Even as these remarks were made in the individual’s role as a private citizen and we understand that the district is conducting an investigation into the matter, Hunter College is reviewing the situation under the university’s applicable conduct and nondiscrimination policies."
The chair of the education committee, Councilwoman Rita Joseph, spoke out to say she was ‘deeply disturbed by the blatantly racist and harmful remarks’ made during the meeting.
In a statement to the NYT, Friedman said she was trying to ‘explain the concept of systemic racism’ to her child in the room with her so referenced ‘an example of an obviously racist trope’.
My complete comments make clear these abhorrent views are not my own, nor were they directed at any student or group,” she continued. “I fully support these courageous students in their efforts to stop school closures.
“However, I recognise these comments caused harm and pain, while that was not my intent I do truly apologise.”
Jess Battison