UCLA suspends official who cheered Charlie Kirk’s death, after scrubbing DEI website
Johnathan Perkins, UCLA’s director of race and equity, called Kirk’s death 'chickens coming home to roost' before deactivating his account.
The university removed its Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion page after Perkins’ posts praising Kirk’s assassination drew national outrage.
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has placed its Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion’s director of race and equity on leave after he made multiple celebratory remarks about the assassination of Charlie Kirk .
According to a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times, UCLA confirmed that Jonathan Perkins was placed on “immediate leave” and the university has “launched an investigation.”
UCLA added, “While free expression is a core value of UCLA, violence of any kind — including the celebration of it — is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
The decision came after UCLA quietly removed the “Who We Are” section of its EDI office website, which had listed Perkins as the director. Archived versions of the page remain available online.
Perkins drew backlash for a series of social media posts on the platform BlueSky following Kirk’s death. Screenshots of the Bluesky posts have been reposted by Corey DeAngelis in a thread of comments on the above Facebook post. Jay Perk has deactivated his Bluesky account.
“It is OKAY to be happy when someone who hated you and called for your people’s death dies — even if they are murdered,” Perkins wrote. In another post, he added, “Dude made his bed; reaped what he sowed; chickens coming home to roost, etc. Smh.”
Other remarks by Perkins on Bluesky: “F**k Around and Find Out is really doing its thing, lately,” and “I’m always glad when bigots die, so.” In response to one user saying Kirk “shouldn’t be dead,” Perkins replied: “Why shouldn’t he be dead?”
Perkins’ controversial statements are not new. In 2022, he tweeted: “No one wants to openly admit [we all] hope Clarence Thomas dies,” referring to the Supreme Court justice, whom he also labeled an “Uncle Thomas,” and a “sexist token.”
Perkins responded to Queen Elizabeth II’s death with: “Good riddance, colonizer.” The account associated with the tweets has since been deactivated.
Last year, The Washington Free Beacon reported about how Perkins claimed Jews “enjoy the benefits of whiteness,” while questioning whether Israel deserved support if Jewish people “are not also considered ‘white.”
According to his LinkedIn page, Perkins’ UCLA duties included “implementing equitable and evidence-based best practices” and cultivating measures to help “prioritize long-term, antiracist improvement.”
Campus Reform has contacted UCLA and Jonathan Perkins. This article will be updated accordingly.
