African Americans expressed shock and dismay on social media over the sudden and tragic death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday, despite his history of negative remarks about Martin Luther King Jr. and Black people.
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“There is no way I’m going to see that video of Charlie Kirk being shot and feel anything other than terrible,” tweeted Popular media personality Van Lathan.
Kirk, a prominent ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot in the neck on Wednesday, September 10, while speaking at a live Q&A session with students at Utah Valley University in Orem. Orem is located approximately 40 miles south of Salt Lake City.
TMZ reported Kirk’s death, and graphic video clips of the young husband and father of two collapsing after a single shot quickly circulated online. Spectators at the public event were visibly stunned, gasping as people began to flee the area.
Black Americans took to social media to speak out about Kirk’s shooting death, and while the reaction was mix considering Kirk’s political viewpoints, hundreds of Black users expressed the pain of seeing the young man’s life destroyed in seconds for the world to see: The conservative firebrand was outspoken against critical race theory and, in 2024, went on an anti-Martin Luther King Jr. rant. “MLK [Martin Luther King] was awful. He’s not a good person,” Kirk said at the AmericaFest convention that January. “He said one good thing he actually didn’t believe,” Kirk added at the time.
Van Lathan tweeted that despite what he called Kirk’s “rhetoric” and “hatefulness,” he’s not “robbed of my compassion, that was awful, and we HAVE to try to be better.”
X user Dom Lucre said “he’s not a crying man,” but he “just can’t believe this.” He continued: “I can’t even look at the camera because I’m getting too emotional bro.” He also called Kirk an “American hero” and compared Kirk’s shooting death to that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Disagreeing with someone’s views must never justify violence,” one person wrote next to a video of Kirk being wounded on Instagram. “We cannot allow a society where bullets replace dialogue or where violence becomes a response to political differences.”
Charlie Kirk, an Arlington Heights, IL native, co-founded Turning Point USA at 18. This right-wing non-profit promotes conservative principles. Kirk is known for controversial views, having publicly criticized Black Lives Matter, called George Floyd a “scumbag,” and faced “race-baiting” accusations.
Despite the grace many African Americans have afforded to Kirk, other social media users, Black and white, are still holding onto the Kirk’s comments about MLK, which at the time was condemned by NAACP and other civil rights organizations.
One person on twitter said, “I wanna feel bad for them, but they don’t care about gun control.” While some people made light of the situation online, others swiftly condemned their comments, with one person calling them “disgraceful af.”
Another penned: “people praising him being shot should be put down like a dog, no matter his political views which aren’t even f*cking extreme you shouldn’t want a man who’s a good father and good overall person and is respectable to everyone, you shouldn’t want him dead because you don’t like him simply because of his political views.” One Instagram user wrote how they are praying “for the family yall wishing death on a man is crazy work I get we don’t like him but yall taking it too far.”
Just before the shooting, Kirk posted about the event on X, writing how the university is “FIRED UP and READY for the first stop back on the American Comeback Tour.”
Reports say the suspect is still at large. Video posted on social media appeared to show a white older man being detained by police on the ground afterward, but its unclear whether he is the suspected gunman.
Charlie Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika Frantzve, and their two children; a daughter named Sarah Rose, 4, and a two-year-old son. He was 31.
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