It was a memorial where black was not required. It was, in fact, unwanted.
Leading up to Sunday’s memorial for Charlie Kirk, the right-wing figure who was assassinated on Sept. 10, Turning Point USA, the sprawling political organization founded by Mr. Kirk, requested that attendees not wear funereal black. Rather, for an afternoon that was thick with evangelical overtones, their “Sunday best” would be more appropriate with a patriotic bent: in red, white or blue.
The tens of thousands of mourners that filed into State Farm Stadium, in Glendale, Ariz., where the service was held, met that mandate. They arrived, for the roughly five-hour service, in red sundresses and blue golf polos. In short-sleeved white dress shirts with red ties. And in T-shirts printed with “Trump,” with American flags and with Mr. Kirk’s face.
This was a patriotic mélange, with a conspicuous right-wing tilt. The modern conservative moment has, after all, co-opted red, white and blue as its team colors. On Sunday, the organizers behind Mr. Kirk’s memorial didn’t just acknowledge that, they amplified it, by explicitly requesting that one could pay their respects to Mr. Kirk by wearing the colors of the flag he often draped himself in.
The crowd’s discordant degrees of formality also suited this distinct and distinctly American event. Pulled together by Turning Point in 11 days, Mr. Kirk’s memorial service, held in a mammoth football stadium, swung tonally between a political rally, a megachurch service, a recruiting event for Turning Point and a teary remembrance of a husband, father and friend. The differing ways of dressing for this ceremony were themselves a mirror on the many perceptions of what this ceremony should achieve.
Yet, many of the clothes also signified the singular influence of Mr. Kirk. Many wore shirts splayed with the word “Freedom,” an echo of the T-shirt that Mr. Kirk, 31, was wearing when he was shot in Utah. As Mr. Kirk has been reframed as a conservative martyr, this plain-speaking shirt has become a right wing meme, and a ubiquitous piece of merch online: “Freedom” tees are available on Etsy for as little as $8.
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