A UCLA official with its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Office has been placed on leave amid an investigation over remarks made on social media concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk, according to social media reports and university sources.
Johnathan Perkins, the director of race and equity, appeared to have published the remarks on BlueSky. The posts express satisfaction with as well as indifference to the killing of Kirk, a popular right-wing commentator and activist.
Perkins, who could not be reached for comment, issued a statement through Linkedin — which has since been taken down — stating that he had deactivated all social media accounts with the exception of Instagram and that he had received multiple death threats. He said his home address and phone number had also been made public by critics because “I said it’s okay to be happy when a racist who called for your eradication dies.”
Perkins said the university had placed him on “investigative leave” to look into the complaints that Kirk’s supporters had made against him.
“This is Project 2025,” he wrote. “This is fascism at work.”
Screenshots of Perkins’ posts have been shared by conservatives on social media.
In one screenshot, a BlueSky user wrote that they did not feel sad over Kirk’s death; Perkins appeared to respond with: “Why shouldn’t he be dead?”
Another post said: “I’m always glad when bigots die, so.”
In what looked to be back-to-back posts, Perkins, who is Black, appeared to have written: “You can’t force people to mourn someone who hated us — no matter how he died,” then, “It is OKAY to be happy when someone who hated you and called for your people’s death dies — even if they are murdered.”
In a written statement, UCLA said a “campus employee” had been put on leave and the school had launched an investigation into social media posts made about Kirk.
“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 statement read.
A university spokesperson did not identify the employee and referred The Times to the above statement. University sources, however, confirmed that Perkins was placed on leave.
Perkins has been outspoken on the issue of systemic racism. He said he fell victim to it in the spring of 2011 when he was stopped by campus police at the University of Virginia, where he was attending law school. Perkins said he was stopped because he matched the description of a person they were looking for. The incident brought public scrutiny to the university’s police department but ended when Perkins recanted the story.
Years later, he said he was pressured by the FBI to recant his story.
“Doing so has been my life’s chief regret,” he wrote in retelling of this story years later.
Perkins said his activism and academic work to create a more equal society were rooted in “antiracist allyship and the effects of individual and institutional bias,” according to his website.
Perkins joined UCLA in 2019. He and his sister co-host the podcast “Black&.”
Perkins’ statements on social media were in contrast with those made by university officials, including James B. Milliken, president of the University of California, which oversees hundreds of thousands of staff and faculty across 10 campuses, six academic health systems and three affiliated national laboratories.
In the statement, released the day that Kirk was killed, Milliken wrote: “Political violence has no place in our society and on our campuses. This wasn’t just an attack on an individual; it was an attack on the very freedoms we as a nation hold dear. This is a very sad day.”
Perkins’ social media posts that have been shared on X appeared to have been made on Sept. 12, two days after Kirk was killed while on his American Comeback Tour, which kicked off on the campus of Utah Valley University. Kirk was answering questions about mass shootings when he was shot in the neck.
Three days after the shooting, authorities arrested a suspect in Kirk’s killing, identifying him as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who is registered as nonpartisan and whose parents are registered as Republican, according to registration data reviewed by The Times.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said a family member told investigators that “Robinson had become more political in recent years” and expressed dislike for Kirk, who Robinson said was “full of hate” and “spreading hate.”
Perkins is the latest public figure to be mired in controversy over comments related to Kirk.
A Mississippi University staff member was fired after reposting “hurtful, insensitive comments on social media” regarding Kirk, according to the university’s statement. Matthew Dowd, a political analyst for MSNBC, was fired after making “inappropriate” statements on air, according to the news network.
They are among the many who have been recently targeted by right-wing activists, influencers and politicians over comments made after Kirk’s killing.
Sean Davis, chief executive and founder of conservative media outlet the Federalist, wrote on X that it wasn’t enough to contact people’s employers but to also reach out to state licensing boards.
“Lawyers, teachers, and medical professionals who endorse or threaten violence violate their license agreements and cannot be trusted to be around clients, children, or patients,” his post read in part.
Times staff writer Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.
