Hunter College to Review Professor’s ‘Abhorrent’ Remarks at Meeting

Troy Closson, New York Times

Hunter College, a top public university in New York City, said on Sunday that it would review whether “abhorrent remarks” made by a professor at a public meeting violated the institution’s policies.

The comments were made at a Feb. 10 Community Education Council meeting at which public school families on Manhattan’s West Side debated a contentious proposal by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration to close or relocate several schools.

As one student, who attendees said was Black, spoke out to praise her teachers and lament the potential shutting of her school, another attendee — identified as Allyson Friedman, an associate professor at Hunter College who was attending as a public school parent — cut in.

“They’re too dumb to know they’re in a bad school,” Dr. Friedman said, according to a recording of the meeting.

She was attending virtually and was unaware that her microphone was turned on. “If you train a Black person well enough, they’ll know to use the back,” Dr. Friedman continued. “You don’t have to tell them anymore.”

She appeared to be referencing a comment made earlier in the meeting by the local school district’s interim acting superintendent, Reginald Higgins. He had mentioned Carter G. Woodson, the scholar known as the father of Black history, who said, “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.”

Shock, confusion and outrage swept across the faces of parents attending the meeting. Then one interjected, using the professor’s name: “What you’re saying is absolutely hearable here. You’ve got to stop.”

Learn how Dr. Friedman defended herself.

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