It appears after several women accused novelist Junot Díaz of sexual misconduct back in May, Díaz is now adamantly denying these allegations.
Author Zinzi Clemmons kicked off the sexual misconduct allegations after she used her Twitter account to accuse the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner of “forcibly kissing” her. Nearly two months after the initial allegations, Díaz told the Boston Globe during an interview that he’s “shocked” by these allegations.
As a grad student, I invited Junot Diaz to speak to a workshop on issues of representation in literature. I was an unknown wide-eyed 26 yo, and he used it as an opportunity to corner and forcibly kiss me. I’m far from the only one he’s done this 2, I refuse to be silent anymore.
— zinziclemmons (@zinziclemmons) May 4, 2018
“I did not kiss anyone. I did not forcibly kiss Zinzi Clemmons. I did not kiss Zinzi Clemmons. It didn’t happen,” he told the Boston Globe. Díaz adds that he was “distressed,” “confused,” and “panicked” by the accusations, defending himself, saying he had not bullied the women or been sexually inappropriate. However, after the initial allegations surfaced, Díaz made a potentially contradicting statement to The New York Times.
Díaz told the Times in May: “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.” But, it appears the Drown author might be rescinding this introductory statement.
During his interview with the Boston Globe, Díaz continues, “I was, like, ‘Yo, this doesn’t sound like anything that’s in my life, anything that’s me. I did not kiss anyone. I did not forcibly kiss Zinzi Clemmons. I did not kiss Zinzi Clemmons . . . It didn’t happen.”
Díaz, whose stories are full of male characters behaving badly toward women, now finds himself trying to draw distinctions between himself and his work, between sexual misconduct and consensual relationships having gone awry.
I was 32 and my first novel hadn’t come out yet. I was invited to a dinner and sat next to him. I disagreed with him on a minor point. He shouted the word “rape” in my face to prove his. It was completely bizarre, disproportionate, and violent. https://t.co/WQr0hLW8Z5
— Monica Byrne (@monicabyrne13) May 4, 2018
Surprisingly, the Cambridge author is keeping his teaching job at MIT and his editing position at Boston Review after separate investigations found the accusations lacked “the kind of severity that animated the #MeToo movement,” as Boston Review reports. NBC News notes that three editors at the Review have quit, seemingly in response to this investigation.
In April, The New Yorker published an essay in which Díaz revealed he was raped at age 8 and recounted the heavy toll the experience had taken on his relationships. Although Díaz is a survivor of sexual assault himself, we should still listen to Zinzi Clemmons and the other women who are presently accusing Díaz of sexual misconduct and/or verbal abuse. Beyond lending an active ear, we should take these allegations seriously, regardless of the “lack of severity” that these allegations may or may not carry—because every sexual misconduct accusation is serious.