Renowned Throughout Academia - Author Junot Diaz Joins the #MeToo Movement

quote:

---

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz has withdrawn from a writers festival amid allegations that he had forcefully kissed a woman and showed aggressive behavior toward others.

Writer Zinzi Clemmons said the incident happened when she was a 26-year-old graduate student. She had invited Diaz to speak at a workshop, but Diaz “used it as an opportunity to corner and forcibly kiss me,” Clemmons wrote on Twitter. Other female writers have since come forward, accusing Diaz of mistreatment and misogynistic verbal abuse.

---

quote:

---

In a statement to the New York Times, he said: “I take responsibility for my past. That is the reason I made the decision to tell the truth of my rape and its damaging aftermath. This conversation is important and must continue. I am listening to and learning from women’s stories in this essential and overdue cultural movement. We must continue to teach all men about consent and boundaries.”

---

quote:

---

Clemmons also asked Diaz about a recent New Yorker article, in which Diaz revealed he had been raped as a child, and whether it was meant to preempt misconduct accusations against him, according to BuzzFeed. Writer Alexander Luft, who watched the exchange, said on Twitter the audience “seemed to instantly rally around Diaz” and wanted Clemmons to “stop questioning him.”

---

quote:

---

EJ Dickson, a deputy digital editor for Men’s Health Magazine, said the accusations against Diaz aren’t a surprise.

“Everyone in the literary world/the media knew this, or suspected it,” Dickson wrote on Twitter. “And yet, when Junot Diaz published his New Yorker Essay — a pre-emptive strike if there ever was one — we gave him nothing but plaudits.”

---

quote:

---

"I never hear white writers get asked, 'Do you worry about how you represent white people?'"

---

quote:

---

"Motherfrickers will read a book that’s one third Elvish, but put two sentences in Spanish and they [white people] think we’re taking over."

---

quote:

---

"If you didn't grow up like I did then you don't know, and if you don't know it's probably better you don't judge."

---

quote:

---

"If you can’t see women — half the species — as human, you can’t see yourself as human."

---