Critics lambaste MIT's vice president for equity and inclusion over 'race baiting' social media post

Critics are calling out Karl Reid â the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s new vice president for equity and inclusion â over comments he made on social media Sunday that critics are calling, among other things, “race baiting.”

Here’s the post:

“Just boarded an early morning flight wearing my @MIT gear. A seat mate looked at me and asked, ‘Basketball?’ I said, ‘No. Engineering!’ What about me prompted him to think I was playing or coaching basketball?” Reid asked in his post, which was accompanied by a what appears to be a selfie aboard the plane.

Reid’s post has received, as of Monday afternoon, 7.7 million views, 29,000 likes, and 14,000 comments.

A good number of them, upon a cursory glance, didn’t appear all that positive:

Image source: X

Reid did converse with some commenters. Here’s one of those exchanges:

Image source: X

Here are a few other comments directed at Reid’s post:

“Maybe he was an MIT basketball fan and was looking for a commonality to start a conversation,” another commenter wrote. “Nice try on the racebait though.”
“Bro, are you a musical instrument? Because you played yourself,” another user said.
‘It’s good to immediately accuse people who are being friendly with you of racism,” another commenter quipped. “Must be exhausting.”
“They may have been trying to start a conversation with a harmless questionâ¦ Then you interpreted ‘Thatâs racist!’ from it,” another user noted. “Yes. Thatâs on you.”
“This is why no one wants to talk to anyone lol,” another commenter concluded.
“[Because] March madness just happened, and it looks like an athletic fit? Nice try with the race bait though,” another user wrote. “God forbid someone tries to find commonalities with a stranger.”