{"id":142487,"date":"2026-02-23T10:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/142487\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T10:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:13:09","slug":"new-york-city-college-professor-causes-outrage-by-using-racist-trope-during-virtual-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/142487\/","title":{"rendered":"New York City college professor causes outrage by using \u2018racist trope\u2019 during virtual meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New York<\/a> college professor has been slammed for making an \u201cabhorrent,\u201d racist comment during a public meeting.<\/p>\n

Allyson Friedman, an associate professor at Hunter College, allegedly made the widely condemned remarks on February 10 during a debate centered around New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s <\/a>plan to close several schools on Manhattan\u2019s West Side.<\/p>\n

Friedman allegedly made the comments moments after a Black student expressed their sadness over the possible closure of the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re too dumb to know they\u2019re in a bad school,\u201d Friedman said. \u201cIf you train a Black person well enough, they\u2019ll know to use the back.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to tell them anymore,\u201d Friedman, who was attending the meeting virtually, added.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A New York associate professor, Allyson Friedman, has caused outrage over an alleged racist remark (Hunter College)<\/p>\n

According to The New York Times<\/a>, Friedman was referencing a comment made earlier in the meeting by Reginald Higgins, the school district\u2019s acting superintendent.<\/p>\n

Higgins had, at one point, referred to Carter G. Woodson<\/a>, one of the first scholars to study the history of the Black diaspora in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door,\u201d Woodson had once famously said. \u201cHe will go without being told.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friedman\u2019s comments, though, were audible for everyone at the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllyson Friedman, what you\u2019re saying is absolutely hearable here,\u201d one person said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, frowns and gasps can be seen on the students’ faces attending the Zoom meeting. Some were left with their mouths agape, while several others covered their faces.<\/p>\n

\"Friedman<\/p>\n

Friedman is a teacher at Hunter College and specializes in Cellular Neurophysiology (Google Streetview)<\/p>\n

In a statement provided to The NYT, Friedman said that she was trying to \u201cexplain the concept of systemic racism\u201d to her child, who was in the room with her.<\/p>\n

In order to do that, she wrote that she referenced \u201can example of an obviously racist trope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy complete comments make clear these abhorrent views are not my own, nor were they directed at any student or group,\u201d she continued. \u201cI fully support these courageous students in their efforts to stop school closures.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, I recognize these comments caused harm and pain, while that was not my intent I do truly apologize.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Friedman<\/p>\n

Friedman made the remarks during a meeting centered on Mayor Mamdani\u2019s plan to close several NYC schools (Getty)<\/p>\n

Friedman is an associate professor in cellular neurobiology. According to the university\u2019s website<\/a>, she specializes in exploring how neural circuits and neuroadaptations influence human behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of this research is to expand our neurophysiological understanding of mood and anxiety disorders in order to find targets for mechanistically driven therapeutics,\u201d her webpage continues.<\/p>\n

Friedman\u2019s comments were made during a meeting about a possible plan to close Hunter College, which is just one of several schools<\/a> included in a proposed wave of changes.<\/p>\n

Plans seen by The NYT propose closing the local Community Action School and the Manhattan School for Children, due to low enrollment. Meanwhile, the Center School, which educates fifth to eighth graders, could be moved to a new campus.<\/p>\n

The educational institution could be moved to P.S.\/I.S. 191, another school that would lose its middle school grades.<\/p>\n

The Independent has contacted Friedman and Hunter College for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New York college professor has been slammed for making an \u201cabhorrent,\u201d racist comment during a public meeting.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[59863,59864,59867,59695,9,24,55,54,56,59866,59865],"class_list":{"0":"post-142487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-allyson-friedman","9":"tag-associate-professor","10":"tag-friedman","11":"tag-hunter-college","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-city-news","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-public-meeting","18":"tag-zoom-meeting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}