Up until his assassination, I had never heard of Charlie Kirk. Unlike my father, who faithfully watched Fox News just to see what “they” were saying, or my friends who spend endless hours trolling social media, I had missed him. So when news broke of his death, I was shocked and disappointed. Political violence is never the answer, and I remain disappointed it came to that.
But after reading more about Kirk, I began to understand why he was so disliked. He built a career and a following on negative statements and outright lies about African Americans and other minorities.
His list of grievances is too long to recite in full, but here are just a few:
- He said the Civil Rights Act was a “huge mistake” that created an anti-White system of DEI and civil rights.
- He claimed Democratic immigration policy was designed to “diminish and decrease white demographics in America.”
- He described “prowling Blacks” as targeting White people for fun.
- And he dismissed George Floyd—whose murder became a global turning point—as a “scumbag.”
This is the man who served as one of Donald Trump’s close advisers, someone the vice president described as “like a little brother.” Kirk wasn’t a fringe figure—he was trusted.
His words helped shape policies that amount to a not-so-subtle attack on Black and Brown communities. His influence revealed that what some describe as “colorblind” conservatism is, in reality, an all-out embrace of white grievance politics.
That’s why I urge you to read several articles in this issue alongside this editorial. One examines how Labor Department propaganda eerily mimics Nazi recruitment flyers—absent of women and people of color.
Another takes a deeper look at reparations and the long history of “white affirmative action” – :the Homestead Act, the GI Bill, redlining, and discriminatory judicial systems that locked out Black families from generational wealth. These are the policies that built White prosperity while locking Black communities out.
My summary of Kirk, after watching just a single video, is that he was a bully. He thrived on confronting young people on college campuses, baiting them into debates about privilege they hadn’t yet had time to fully process. He avoided seasoned Black voices who have lived the reality of systemic exclusion.
And like every bully on the playground, he left behind scars—not just on individuals, but on our national dialogue. His death doesn’t erase the damage, nor does it change the responsibility we all share to stand up against ideas that demean and divide. If anything, it reminds us that the fight for truth, justice, and reparations is bigger than any one loud voice.
That’s why this issue’s series on reparations is so important. By revisiting the broken promise of “40 acres and a mule,” the policies that created White generational wealth while locking Black families out, and the present-day movement for repair, we counter Kirk’s narrative with history, facts, and vision.
Where he sowed resentment, we must plant understanding. Where he dismissed our pain, we must insist on truth. And where he denied our worth, we must claim our rightful place in America’s story.
This article really hits home. Charlie Kirks dangerous lies and divisive rhetoric needed to be called out, but the fight for justice and truth must continue beyond his loss. Its encouraging to see a platform tackling these crucial issues with such clarity.piupiu star ship
It doesn’t matter if you agreed with him or not. He welcomed ALL challengers to debates and conversation. He didn’t bully privileged, immature, college young people and your insinuation that college ADULTS can plan their entire lives but not formulate or voice their own opinions is insulting. He stood on many forums other than his viral YouTube Shorts and Tiktoks. DEI is a mistake. Blacks did “prowl” and attack random people on social media #knockoutchallenge. Caucasian neighborhoods have been overrun by immigration both legal and illegal. Some areas for the better, most not. Reparations are a joke. Go and earn your way like every other American. America has given it’s citizens every opportunity to be a better version of themselves. George Floyd didn’t deserve death, especially at the hands of the people who were meant to serve and protect, but he was far from a Saint.
It’s crazy that you have the audacity to talk about how these “young people” don’t have time to fully process how they feel and also write about situations you have clearly never lived in. Have you seen the areas you grew up in or live in destroyed by violent minorites, and/or illegal immigration?
As a third generation minority in this country I invite you to the borders of Texas so you can see what democratic immigration policy does, come stroll around El Paso for the nicer tourist version. Wade into our rivers so you can see all the trash that’s left behind every weekend in what was once naturally beautiful. Hopefully, you don’t discover a family, or child, that drowned while trying to cross the river. There are far worse places to go but I wouldn’t send you there because you may actually disappear.
Come to the suburbs of cities like Philadelphia where land value has plummeted compared to predominately WHITE nearby areas as blacks and minorites move out of the cities and spread crime and destruction over the years turning them into places everyone avoids or wants to escape from. Places like Elkins Park, Norristown, and Coatesville.
I do agree with you on the over militarization of our police and thatthey have become more violent and more likely to escalate. Growing up officers would talk about how they could count all the times they unholstered their weapons on one hand, now they don’t even approach you without their hands on their firearms or tasers. It’s pretty ridiculous.
You don’t have to like Kirk. A lot of people didn’t but that was kind of his point. People don’t like being told what’s wrong with themselves and that THEY need to improve. A whole group of people will be even less likely to hear what needs to be said. Was he divisive? Yeah, he was. Mostly because he relied on facts to debate and people don’t like facts that fly in the face of their experiences. It’s the difference between wisdom and intelligence. Even if you experienced something that was different than what he said, you were the outlier in that situation. The person who wrote this article clearly chose the path of education and professionalism but you know damn well a lot of the kids around you did not walk the same path. It’s just been the brutal truth for brown and black kids in this country for decades. More likely to drop out, more likely to turn to crime, more likely to end up in prison, more likely to die prematurely. That’s not a system of oppression, it’s a cultural problem in our own communities and it’s reflected by what we choose to value.
If y’all want to be treated properly then start acting properly. Take care of your houses, lands, and neighborhood. Stop idolizing, participating in, and allowing crime, drugs, violence, and questionable money in your streets. Start valuing education, hard work, and dedication. We’re brilliant and powerful people just like every other American out there, but nobody owes us a GD thing that we can’t go and earn ourselves.
Your article is full of lies and hate
both sides of the aisle are equally racist, and both sides take part in equal assassination attempts, lawsuits, ridiculous racist rhetoric and bullying, including sexual harassment, seducing people to vote by playing on their inner demons, manipulating the voting scales improperly to inflate their side of the aisle making them look better. there’s really no point in voting, each side is going towards war every day, they humiliate people of color on both sides and there is no justice, and homelessness and illegal immigration are on the rise, and this is the fault of both sides, if they can’t run a government, if they can’t run the people, then why did they come over here to start the racist bigotry of the 13 colonies in the first place? and it’s so pathetic how they need national guard and fences nowadays at all government properties, because they have offended the public to the point of now they cower in fear when they see a normal civilian working full time paying taxes enjoying his life without politics.
You are a very sad person and more divisive than your lies say. He was none of the things you say he was. You need help.
His lies. His hate
I will just address one area and that is the DEI part. If you listened to his debates you would learn why he didn’t want DEI but wanted what Martin Luther King wanted a world where people are not judged by the color of their skin but by their character.
Truth hurts. How sad and discouraging that people bought the Kirk message. Bullies don’t help, they only hurt. His followers don’t know what free speech means and they want to take it away. They chose to believe in his fantasy of an America he created in his own mind so Trump can pat him on his head. Open your eyes, educate yourselves. What a shame people choose ignorance over respect, education and unity.
I don’t see how people are able to look at themselves in the mirror after they they publicly put out these lies. This article did not give one reference. I can go to to back them up on spewing this hate. Not one single reference or video. It is all a lie just as a lied about Jesus. They’re lying about Charlie. Shame on you. Shame shame on you all. God sees you. You know that right? Even if you don’t believe in him, he still sees you. And you will be accountable for this one day. I would pray for you all. You’re the ones to spreading the hate. Not people like Charlie Kirk. Oh wait a minute. There are no more like him. He was one of a kind. But by his death many more are created. You guys are so wrong. So very, very evil and wrong
Watches ONE video CLIP…Nothing in full.. “he’s a bully”.
Ok
I am so dismayed by the number of people who will ignore actual words that come from someone’s mouth and heart and call people liars when they point them out. There are videos of Kirk saying the things that are presented in this article. It is truly confounding.
Why is someone debating in a respectful, sensible and sharing his beliefs to help shape feeble minded individuals considered a bully? One can choose to walk away if you dont agree with him. Do you even understand definition of bully. Geez. So anyone who debaters are called bullies now?
He was a bully. He bullied a kid in High school so badly that the kid had a suicide attempt.
Or so they say, that said kid could be as I stated, feeble-minded and couldn’t handle the thought provoking questions that were thrown at him. And in his snowflake mindset felt “suicidal”, cos all can be too much for his head to handle. Not a physical kind of bully. So easily brain-washed by what’s stated in media.
Agree totally with Mark on his September 12 comment. Both sides are to blame. Christians attack non-Christians. Non-Christians attack Christians. Republican attack Democrats. Democrats attack Republicans. There is no middle ground anymore. We’re right you’re wrong mentally with every group in America. It’s sad. I remember old politics from our early history where there was give and take. Democrats sided with Republicans. Republicans sides with Democrats. We can’t continue to operate like we are because whoever is in power now abuses that power (whether Democrat or Republican). We can’t continue on our current trend and must do better if America is going to survive. Hopefully, God will continue to bless the USA.
Tell me again? What would be desirable about a “caucasian neighborhood” and why would anyone invade such a place. What is more ugly than that “concept” is that someone felt “free” to pen that in a comment. Sadly that is the legacy of Donald Trump and Charlie Kirk.