After Kirk Comments, UCLA Fires DEI Director

The University of California, Los Angeles, is the latest university to fire an employee for making negative comments about Charlie Kirk after his killing last fall, the Los Angeles Times reported. 

After a gunman killed right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk during an event at Utah Valley University last September, Johnathan Perkins, director of Race and Equity at UCLA, shared his reaction in a series of posts on Bluesky. “Good riddance,” read one; “It is OKAY to be happy when someone who hated you and called for your people’s death dies—even if they are murdered,” read another. And finally, “I’m always glad when bigots die.”

Outrage over Perkins’s comments ensued—he received death threats and UCLA received a barrage of complaints. Soon after, the university put him on paid leave and opened an investigation. Last week, it fired him. 

“Given the nature of your role as a Director of Race and Equity, the university has determined that this conduct significantly undermined trust in your leadership and adversely affected the office’s effectiveness and credibility,” read the termination letter, which the L.A. Times obtained a copy of. It cited violations of policies on “workplace violence prevention” for posts that “referenced or appeared to endorse violence or death” and made “demeaning or generalized remarks about demographic groups.”

Perkins is one of many faculty and other higher education workers who have been suspended or fired over their comments about Kirk, whose organization, Turning Point USA, maintains a Professor Watchlist to “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” 

Some punished workers are suing for wrongful termination and infringement on their right to free expression, and a few have since been reinstated.