National science communities tend to revere their Nobel Prize winners, and can be reluctant to criticise them when they behave inappropriately. However a prize does not excuse poor behaviour, and the absence of a response also sends a message about that community. (1/4)

So I want to express my disappointment on reading Gerard ’t Hooft’s recent FB post defending blackface, and I'm appalled by his dismissive responses in the comments to a Black Faculty member who tried to reason with him. (2/4)

https://www.facebook.com/mikhail.shifman/posts/3795167470500291

To students, junior researchers, and faculty of colour in the Netherlands reading his remarks - and feeling like you do not want to be part of a physics community where senior figures feel free to behave like this - I am sorry. (3/4)

His remarks do not reflect my values, nor those of many of my colleagues (see responses from @WijersRalph and @Machiel_Keestra on that FB thread). (4/4)