UCLA finally fired its DEI chief months after the woke administrator publicly celebrated the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk — but now he’s begging for donations to help with his pets.
Jonathan Perkins, UCLA’s director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, was finally given the ax in a letter on Friday after he gushed he was “glad” about the vicious murder of the Turning Point USA founder.
“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,” the university told him in a termination letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
His last day on the payroll for the $137,000-a-year gig was Jan. 30, according to the letter. It’s not clear what took the university so long to make its determination.
Perkins intends to file a lawsuit challenging his dismissal, claiming he was exercising his right to free speech when he made the comments on social media in the immediate aftermath of the killing on Sept. 10, 2025.
“It is OKAY to be happy when someone who hated you and called for your people’s death dies — even if they are murdered,” the woke administrator said on Bluesky.
Perkins, who is black, wrote on Bluesky, trashed Kirk for comments suggesting black people were less violent before the civil rights movement.
“Good riddance,” the diversity expert said. “I’m always glad when bigots die.”
Perkins is moving back to his hometown in Philadelphia and is also raising money via a GoFundMe campaign to help with his relocation and legal fees, adding that he had “dedicated my personal and professional life to fighting racism within higher education.”
“This termination by UCLA, a government institution, is a clear violation of my First Amendment right to free speech, among others,” he wrote on the page.
So far, he has raised $10,000 and is seeking help for his two dogs and cats. The goal is to raise nearly $25,000.
Perkins is a lawyer and previously worked in the general counsel’s office at Harvard before moving to the West Coast.
This is not the first time Perkins has made controversial remarks. His Bluesky and other social media activity has criticized the Trump administration, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE.
“It boils down to me and other Black people and other brown people … simply not being sad that this man who was so openly hateful was against all of us,” Perkins, the grandson of civil rights activist John M. Perkins of Mississippi, told the Times.
