Author Junot Díaz Is Being Accused Of Sexual Misconduct & We Need To Listen To His Accusers

As #TimesUp continues to find justice for R. Kelly’s alleged victims, claims about workplace sexual misconduct and sexual harassment continue to surface. Though the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences moved to expel Bill Cosby’s membership almost immediately after his retrial, it took the Oscars over 40 years to revoke Roman Polanski’s membership. Nevertheless, author Zinzi Clemmons has accused Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz of sexual misconduct—and we need to listen to her claims.

According to The New York Times, Clemmons detailed the alleged incident on Twitter. “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 year old, and he used it as an opportunity to corner and forcibly kiss me. I'm far from the only one he's done this to, I refuse to be silent anymore,” Clemmons wrote. By definition, kissing something without consent is sexual assault, The Huffington Post notes.

Beyond Clemmons’ startling claims, it’s more unnerving that she adds that other women maybe have also been the victim of his sexual crimes. Nevertheless, Clemmons’ tweet has empowered other women to come forward with their own narrative about Díaz.

Page Six adds that another woman, writer Carmen Maria Machado, wrote a tweet thread about how Díaz verbally attacked and berated her. Machado kicked her thread off by stating, “During his tour for This Is How You Lose Her, Junot Díaz did a Q&A at the grad program I'd just graduated from. When I made the mistake of asking him a question about his protagonist's unhealthy, pathological relationship with women, he went off for me for twenty minutes.”

Though Machado says she backed up her accusations with several portions of Díaz’s book, he apparently responded by yelling at her. Because Machado and Díaz were accompanied by a room full of people (because it was a Q&A panel, after all), Machado says that Díaz’s shouting session was matched with nods of approval from some audience members.

“And I'll never forget: his male handlers (presumably from the university? I don't know) were sitting directly in front of me, and every time he spoke they nodded enthusiastically and in unison, and every time I spoke, they froze. When I think about those men I want to scream,” Machado adds in one of her tweets. Regardless, Machado's lengthy thread expands on the accusations in great detail. 

Aside from the alleged verbal harassment and sexual assault, some Twitter users have also come forward to claim that Díaz is a long-time misogynist. "I hadn't been keeping up with Junot Díaz recently. But to hear that he'd written some article for The New Yorker in April, confessing that 'he hurt women' & finding out that it was probably a preemptive cover for the misogyny and assault he's committed against them is reprehensible," Clarkisha Kent writes. 

As The Washington Post notes, Díaz has previously written about being raped as a child. Although Díaz is also a survivor himself, we should still actively listen to the women who continue to accuse Díaz of his own sexual crimes.