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The murder of right-wing activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10 has brought out the best and worst in all of us.
It has compelled those of sound mind, compassion, empathy and maturity to call out acts of political violence on both sides of the aisle. It’s also forced us to return to the fundamental principle that we all have the right to say what we want in a free society. At the same time, it has ginned up the extremes on both sides to point fingers and dig themselves into a never-ending rabbit hole of “whataboutism,” which, in turn, keeps us stifled in a state of complacency where progress is increasingly beyond our reach.
Furthermore, it has led some on the right to use Kirk’s death to shove him down the throats of those who opposed his viewpoints—a way to “own the Libs” instead of memorializing him properly. Such actions include declaring Kirk’s birthday a national holiday, comparing him to Martin Luther King Jr. or calling on universities to erect a statue in his honor.
Recently, the Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has been supportive of the latter happening on the LSU campus. In response, LSU basketball star and rap artist Flau’Jae Johnson took to social media to express her disagreement with the idea.
“???” was her initial response.
Later, Johnson posted, “For the sake of clarity, if you align yourself with or endorse his racist rhetoric and discriminatory views toward people of color, I respectfully ask that you utilize the unfollow option at the top right of my profile.”
As one could imagine, her comments generated a swarm of nasty retorts from those who have nothing better to do than be online all day. One person went as far as to say “you just want to be Caitlin Clark,” once again using Clark’s name for racial grievances while trying to cut Johnson down to size.
Johnson was an integral part of the 2023 LSU team that defeated Clark and Iowa in the national championship game. Plus, she is a three-time All-American, has received numerous All-SEC selections and was a finalist for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award this past year. All the while, she’s emerged as a star in the hip hop world as an artist signed with Jay Z’s label Roc Nation. In 2024, Johnson released her debut album Best of Both Worlds, which featured a collaboration with Lil Wayne, and she performed at that year’s ESPY Awards.
Her opposition to a Kirk statue, as well as her subsequent comments, don’t come without evidence.
Throughout his career, Kirk made some troubling comments about race. He said that Dr. King was a “bad guy” and made critical remarks about the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. He also made disparaging comments about the intellect of prominent Black women, specifically mentioning former First Lady Michelle Obama, political commentator Joy Reid and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Famously, Kirk said that if he got on a plane and saw a Black pilot, he would “hope he’s qualified.” He also seemed to advocate for racial profiling when he talked about “prowling blacks” and promoting the white supremacist Great Replacement Theory.
Also, Kirk said that Simone Biles was a “shame to our country” after she pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics due to mental health struggles attributed to the “twisties.” And when Caitlin Clark acknowledged her white privilege while accepting TIME Magazine’s Athlete of the Year honors in 2024, Kirk and other far-right wingers used it as an opportunity to further chastise Black women in basketball.
That being said, Kirk had every right to say those things, and his odious comments in no way justify his murder. Conversely, Johnson has every right to say why she opposes the Governor essentially trying to force her university to put up a statue of a man with Kirk’s background and beliefs.
One could imagine how that would feel to other Black students and students of color.
Johnson has real perspective, whereas Gov. Landry is purely about politics. This stunt, along with his interjecting into the debate over who will be the next football coach at LSU, shows where his interests appear lie. Instead of becoming an overgrown internet troll trying to “own the Libs”, perhaps it would be wise for Gov. Landry to focus on high rates of infant mortality, homicides and high school dropouts that is plaguing his state. In addition, if he or any other conservative want to honor Kirk properly, speak up for your side in the public square through debate or set up a scholarship fund in Kirk’s memory to aspiring young conservative leaders.
In a world where politics is defined by anything goes, where grown adults in high office are stuck in a state of arrested development and where partisanship trumps principle, it usually takes somebody outside that world to compel us back to sanity.
This time around, that somebody is Flau’Jae Johnson.
