This is a highly contested topic due to the significant uproar his assassination caused. From my research, Charlie Kirk obviously didn’t identify as a white supremacist, but his ideologies certainly reinforced and sometimes aligned with the typical ideas of one.
First, what constitutes someone as a white supremacist?
Google Definition:
a person who believes that white people constitute a superior race and should therefore dominate society, typically to the exclusion or detriment of other racial and ethnic groups.
Now, if we dive into Charlie Kirk’s beliefs and previous statements on prominent issues, we can see if any of these align with the ideology of a white supremacist.
Kirk has downplayed police brutality and systemic discrimination of minority groups. This is a true issue in America, not something to be downplayed or ignored. For example, in police killings, “51% of victims are White, 29% are Black, and 20% are Hispanic. According to estimates from the 2020 US Census, 62% of the United States population is White, 12% is Black, and 19% is Hispanic (US Census Bureau, 2021). Thus, White victims are underrepresented, and Black victims overrepresented” (DaAngelis).
Kirk has been on stage with individuals who have made openly racist or white nationalist comments. Individuals such as Donald Trump, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, etc. While he tried to stay away from these views to avoid public uproar, his platform enabled this spread of their hateful ideologies, which doesn’t make him any better.
Kirk’s anti-immigrant sentiments show the ultimate fear of the white race, being replaced as the dominant demographic in the blooming multi-cultural America. He has warned about demographic shifts in the U.S. and calls immigration a threat to “Western values,” which is basically him being fearful the white race won’t be as dominant. This "multiculturalism" is a threat to the “true American identity”. That type of belief, aligns with white supremacy, whether it's labeled as that or not.
You also can't forget his famous quotes. "Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America," Kirk said in a post on X.(ABC News)
“Jewish donors have been the number one funding mechanism of radical open-border, neoliberal, quasi-Marxist policies, cultural institutions and non-profits," Kirk said on an episode of his podcast in 2023” (ABC news).
As you can see, these are just examples as to why he could have been considered a white supremacist, or someone who supported it in silence. Now that you have these examples, it is entirely based on opinion. In mine, he leaned definitely closer to a white supremacist. Whether or not he embraced it, his actions and views definitely exacerbated the continuous spread of these hateful ideas. Whether he should be mourned is entirely up to your emotional connection to him and what his ideas represented to you. I condemn the action that took his life, but I don’t mourn someone I didn’t agree with.
Charlie Kirk was a top conservative provocateur. What did he believe?
Some of Charlie Kirk's most controversial takes | CBC News
What were Charlie Kirk's political views? Here's what to know about the conservative activist - ABC News
Systemic Racism in Police Killings: New Evidence from the Mapping Police Violence Database, 2013–2021 - PMC
