"They're too dumb to know they're in a bad school," said Friedman, who is a professor at Hunter College. She then appeared to misattribute and misquote Black historian Carter G. Woodson. "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," Friedman said."
"Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday called the remarks "reprehensible" and "indicative of the exact kind of language that makes students feel as if they don't belong in our public school system." A City Hall spokesperson said officials are discussing the incident with CUNY, which oversees Hunter College."
"In the 1933 book, "The Mis-Education of the Negro," Woodson described how racism in schools can perpetuate inequities. "If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door," Woodson wrote."
During a February 10 local education council meeting about closing a middle school, Allyson Friedman, a Hunter College professor and parent at another public school, made racist remarks on Zoom. She called students "too dumb" and misquoted Black historian Carter G. Woodson with a racist statement about Black people. The comments were recorded and shared online, sparking widespread condemnation from elected officials and Black parent leaders. Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the remarks "reprehensible" and noted they contribute to students feeling unwelcome in public schools. City Hall officials began discussions with CUNY regarding the incident, while Black parent leaders organized a press conference demanding accountability and broader systemic change within the school system.
Read at Chalkbeat
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