‘He wasn’t this national hero’: US college students voice concern over Charlie Kirk’s idolization | US universities

ALana*, a student of the University of Utah -Walley, was puzzled by anesthesia Charlie Kirk After his murder on September 10. Being Afro-Latina on Gender issues at Howard University, she found that she discovered that she had seen the image on Instagram about how Kirk hugged Jesus. “He was not this national hero or politician,” said Alan, who uses the pseudonym. He was “just a white man with a loud opinion.”

According to her, the mood in the campus of a historically black university is that the rhetoric of Kirk about marginal communities was hated And that they are unfairly accused of his death.

In those days and weeks after the death of Kirk, A few HBCU And Black students They were aimed at racist threats. Journalists lost their work and Students of color have Received disciplinary measures For the fact that he did not mourn his death or for his celebration. Interview with black, brown and strange students throughout the United States demonstrate the horror of Kirk's value in his death and concern about attacks on freedom of speech. Some students are worried that the murder of Kirk will lead to an increase in hyper-militarization and censorship in college campuses.

On September 23, a group of conservative activists made an unauthorized visit to the University of Tennessee, HBCU in Nashville. They were from The Fearless Tour, which initiates the debate throughout the country in honor of Kirk, and wore the hats “Make America again the Great” and Disputed signs This reads “Dei should be illegal” and “deport all illegal immigrants now! Let's talk. ” The threats for HBCU were on Tsu Junior Talia Talley when she went to the group's table.

“I felt a little terrible,” Talli said. “We had no idea that they came to our campus to do it.” Talley's classmates shouted at activists, she recalled, and “trying to squeeze many things about black history at the small moment that we had.” In the end, the safety of the campus and employees accompanied the fearless tourist group from the campus. “In accordance with the university policy,” TSU said in statement“Any demonstration or protest activity requires preliminary approval and permission.”

Blair*, the senior TSU, saw visitors after she left her physics lessons. “You must have a certain type of right to come to someone else's campus unjustified and discuss students without permission,” said Blair, who uses the pseudonym. “We must not talk to them.”

IN Viral video Talley sent to Tiktok, TSU students followed the conservative group when they were accompanied in campus. “I just didn't want anything to do to happen,” Talley said. “And we knew that we can’t do anything from this, because it is not one of those people that we are.” Talley said that she received several pursuit of messages since she posted the video.

“I am afraid for the communities that may be unfair for violence,” said Justin Hansford, professor of the law faculty and executive director of the Civil Rights Center at Howard University, Justin Hansford. According to Hansford, black and brown communities have long served as a goat in US policy.

“To be angry on blacks is the foundation of many American political energy,” Hansford said. For example, the mass conclusion of black people during the CREK -Kokain epidemic in the 1980s was caused by political motives. “Drug use has reached an epidemic in all American society,” he said, “but [politicians] It is concentrated on black communities for the “War with drugs”, because this gave politicians this narrative, which brings satisfaction to many of their voters. “

Problems of freedom of speech and censorship

Many students also questioned the limits of freedom of speech after the death of Kirk. At least two black students in Texas schools were expelled or left their colleges after the video about how they mocked the death of Kirk, became viral. September 12, Kamrin Giselle Buker, a student of Texas Technical University, was Written on camera Saying: “Everything, damn it, died,” during the vigil for Kirk. According to the Center for the Conclusion of the Labbok District, she was arrested for an assault quote and released the next day on bond for $ 200. According to the representative of Texas Technical University Ellison Hirt, the booker was no longer enrolled in school. “Any behavior that slanders the victims of violence is reprehensible, has no place in our campus and does not correspond to our values,” the university said in statementThe Booker did not answer the requests about the comments.

Devion Canty JR, a former student of Texas State University (TXST), was also shot, imitating Kirka's death in a memorial in his campus. Greg Ebbott, Governor of Texas, Called to the expulsion of Kanti On X, the spelling: “Immediately expel this student. Murder must have consequences. ” Kanti Later came out From school. “Such harassment, as described, contradicts the total values ​​of TXST, and this damages our community in essence,” the TXST representative said James Blashka. “The university continues to monitor messages where there is evidence, name or witness.” Kanti refused an interview with Guardian for this story from legal problems.

“Speech on public issues – even a speech that deeply offends people – is the basis of our democracy,” said Canti Samantha Harris lawyer. “In these polarized times, we cannot allow fear or political pressure to justify the suppression of our most fundamental rights. We should all be much more alarmed that the Governor of Texas clearly called on the state university to violate the constitution, having expelled the student for the protected speech, than the fact that the freshman of the college said that something was unhappy in the heat of a political debate. ”

As a scientist in the theory of critical race, the legal and academic structure, which considers structural racism in politics and institutions, Hansford said that reform and reduction were a general pattern in the US company throughout history. According to him, whenever in progressive ideals there is a step forward, the pendulum will later return to regression. “We have the abolition of slavery, but then you have the end of the reconstruction, and then you have Jim Crowe, which comes immediately after that: a step back. You have a civil rights movement, which is a step forward in relation to racial relations. Then you have a mass conclusion that returns you, ”Hansford said. “We had direct elections of Barack Obama, which seemed a big step forward, but then we had Donald Trump, a step back.”

After the elections of Obama, Hansford said that the public may consider unthinkable, that in the future there can be an increase in segregation and enterprises only for whites. “But this is the path we are going to,” Hansford said. The murder of Kirk “may be a turning point to help us more firmly push us in the era of reverse sliding.”

The right response to the death of Kirk is used as a tool for continuing censorship that challenges the status -kVO, said AR, South Asian man and the eldest at the University of Temple in Philadelphia. “The state could essentially prohibit criticism of Zionism. It can effectively prohibit criticism of the foreign policy of the US government for large segments of the population, especially those who have not been US citizens, ”said Ar*, who uses a pseudonym. “This can flirt with the idea of ​​canceling citizenship from those who are naturalized on the basis of their speech. And now they have the perfect bugamyan of left terrorism. ”

For Ar, Kirk was more than just a political commentator. “He was incredibly right,” he said. “Charlie Kirk constantly commented on Black Americans, trance -peopleHe cries the field on the right Conspiracy theories And lies about immigration.

Zoya*, an Arab woman and a sortone in the college of Swertmore in Pennsylvania, who uses a pseudonym, said that she was confused by a concentration on a pickle in a news cycle. “When I think about political violence, I think about the genocide in Palestine,” Zoya said. “This is the political violence that I prefer to spend my time to stop stopping and starting. I would prefer not to spend it on some kind of dude who earned money on the fight against fear and saying the most disgusting things that can be imagined. ”

According to John, White Gays and a sortone at the Appalach State University in North Carolin, progressive students in the south were supposed to navigate in “deeply uncomfortable” conversations with their conservative family members. When his republican grandmother wants to discuss Kirk’s heritage, John*who uses the pseudonym, he said that he is often speechless. “I feel the level of sympathy for [Kirk’s] family. But when I ask my close friends, we all agree that he was terrible; We do not agree with anything he stood for, ”said John. – It is difficult to compare. On the one hand, it is obvious that political violence is not what we must support. On the other hand, how can I feel sympathy for him when he did not feel sympathy for me? “

Some students consider the possibility of moving abroad after they finish the release of increased fear after Trump’s elections and killing Kirk, said Maria*, a woman of the Asian and Caribbean basin and the eldest at the Pratt Institute in New York. “As soon as the government became more conservative in its views, and especially introducing religion into their policy, we thought that we should turn to other schools, at least for graduate school,” Maria said. “I know many elderly people who are similar:“ We must transfer schools to leave the country. ”

“America is simply not a good place to be in any place.”

*Students decided to use the pseudonym out of fear of persecution