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New York Times correspondent and 1619 Project author Nikole Hannah-Jones called efforts by public figures to mourn and venerate Charlie Kirk after his assassination “unsettling” in an essay Sunday.
After Kirk was assassinated during a Turning Point USA event on a Utah campus earlier this month, Hannah-Jones accused some Democrats and political centrists of “lining up” to honor someone with “extremist” views.
“[I]n the wake of Kirk’s death, individuals and institutions across the nation moved not just to condemn his killing and political violence, but to venerate him. It was unsettling to many to see politicians from across the political spectrum speak with reverence about a man who espoused the racist Great Replacement Theory, which argues that white Americans are being systematically replaced by multiculturalism and by brown and Black immigrants,” Hannah-Jones wrote.
She added that Kirk “contended that Black people commit more crime than white people” and that Islam “is not compatible with Western civilization.”
Hannah-Jones also rejected efforts to celebrate Kirk as a champion of free speech, claiming that they would lead to “the mainstreaming of formerly extremist views.”
“As the Trump administration wages the broadest attack on civil rights in a century, and the shared societal values of multiculturalism and tolerance recede, using Kirk’s knack for vigorous argument to excuse the re-emergence of unabashed bigotry in mainstream politics feels both frightening and perilous,” Hannah-Jones wrote.
She argued that praising Kirk’s willingness to peacefully debate and hold discourse with political opponents overlooks the people of the Black and transgender community “directly targeted” by the activist’s rhetoric.
“At a time when the president of the United States is using his power to go after diversity efforts and engaging in a mass deportation project, some progressives are arguing that people of color, immigrants and members of other marginalized groups who felt dehumanized by Kirk’s commentary, podcasts and debates have to find a way to locate common ground with his followers,” Hannah-Jones wrote.
Several Democratic politicians and media commentators have similarly critiqued Kirk’s rhetoric after his death. Fifty-eight House Democrats voted against a resolution to honor Kirk with Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., saying his legacy belongs “in the dustbin of history.”
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