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

Black, brown and LGBTQ+ students across the US are puzzled by all the praise the far-right commentator has received after his killing

Alana*, a student at Utah Valley University, was taken aback by the deification of Charlie Kirk in the wake of his assassination on 10 September. As an Afro-Latina genderqueer senior at DC's Howard University, she found it off-putting when she saw an image on Instagram of Kirk hugging Jesus. He wasn't this national hero or politician," Alana, who is using an alias, said. He was just a white man with a loud opinion."

The sentiment on the historically Black university's campus, she said, is that Kirk's rhetoric about marginalized communities was hateful and that they are being unfairly blamed for his death.