In July 2020, in the wake of George Floyd's killing, Katz criticized a Princeton faculty letter demanding preferential treatment for minority faculty members, the disbanding of Princeton's security, and the creation of faculty panels to police colleagues' work for supposed racism. Katz was immediately branded a racist and ostracized by his colleagues. Subsequently Professor Katz was fired from Princeton University on a pretext of an old affair with student for which he was already disciplined years ago.