UCLA Saved by the Slap

We have been reviewing cases of recent good PR* and bad PR** that UCLA has recently received. Sometimes, however, what might have been bad PR is simply eclipsed by other events. It appears that UCLA was saved from some bad PR by the infamous Oscars slap incident which sucked the oxygen from lesser stories.*** 

Fox News reported that UCLA's director of race and equity Johnathan Perkins tweeted a seeming death wish about the then-hospitalized Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.**** "No one wants to openly admit [we all] hope Clarence Thomas dies. Whatever you need to tell yourselves..." (The Twitter account has since been made private but it was public at the time and screenshots were taken.) 

The Fox item, with an image of the tweet, began to spread on conservative news media. But just as it did, the Oscars slap arrived. Anna Spain Bradley, UCLA Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at UCLA said Perkins’ tweet "does not reflect my or UCLA EDI’s views." And the tweet story began to fade.

There is the usual lesson in this tale that everything you might be thinking may not need expression on Twitter. Or, if you have to do it, make sure there is a bigger news story out there - just in case.

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/03/good-pr-is-better.html and http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/03/good-pr-is-better-part-2.html.

**http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/03/there-actually-is-such-thing-as-bad.html.

***https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-03-29/will-smith-chris-rock-slap-opinions.

****https://www.foxnews.com/politics/uclas-race-equity-director-death-justice-thomas. The full tweet screenshot is reproduced in this article.