A professor at Hunter College in New York City has been placed on leave following remarks made during a public education meeting that were captured on a live microphone.
According to ABC7, Allyson Friedman, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, is on leave pending investigation after comments she made during a February 10 virtual meeting of Manhattan’s Community Education Council District 3.
During the meeting, which included a discussion about potential school closures, a Black student spoke in opposition to the plan. While attending the meeting as a parent, Friedman was heard speaking while unmuted.
“They’re just too dumb to know they’re in a bad school,” Friedman said.
As the attendees’ faces changed from shock to horror, she then added, “Apparently, Martin Luther King, Jr. 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.”
There is no record of Martin Luther King Jr. making that statement.
The language used by Friedman appears to inaccurately reference a concept associated with historian Carter G. Woodson, the so-called ‘Father of Black History,’ who believed that the educational system indoctrinated Black Americans to accept a subordinate place in society.
In The Mis-Education of the Negro, Woodson wrote: “When you control a man's thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his 'proper place' and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.”
Hunter College President Nancy Cantor addressed the situation in a message to the campus community.
“I write to share an update about actions that Hunter College is taking as a result of the incident… in which abhorrent remarks were heard coming from a district parent who also is a Hunter employee,” Cantor said. “We are investigating this matter under the university’s applicable conduct and nondiscrimination policies.”
The college confirmed that Friedman has been placed on leave pending the outcome of that investigation.
In another statement, Friedman said the comments were taken out of context and attributed the incident to an accidental unmute during the meeting.
“My complete comments make clear these abhorrent views are not my own, nor were they directed at any student or group,” Friedman said. “However, I recognize these comments caused harm and pain… and I do truly apologize.”
The remarks were recorded during the public meeting and later circulated online, prompting responses from educators and city officials.
According to the New York Times, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the comments “reprehensible,” adding, “It is indicative of the exact kind of language that makes students feel as if they don’t belong within our public school system.”
Lewis St. Victor, a teacher at Community Action School MS 258, also responded to the remarks.
“It’s just really defeating to hear that someone thinks that they go to a school that they don’t know is bad and they are too dumb to realize that they’re bad,” he said.