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Within the six weeks since Charlie Kirk was shot and killed, the discourse over the conservative podcaster’s life and legacy has steadily bubbled over into heated debate.
The newest furor has to do with proposals to erect a statue to Kirk.
The controversy started when Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry known as on directors at Louisiana State College to “find a place” for the statue.
Turning Level USA Founder Charlie Kirk is seen onstage on the Fiserv Discussion board throughout preparations for the Republican Nationwide Conference (RNC) on July 14, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Picture by Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures)
“Come on, ladies and gentlemen, let’s see if we can be the first campus to do it,” Landry
In a put up on Bluesky, Professor Emeritus Robert Mann, who retired from LSU in 2024, blasted the concept and likened Kirk to late KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.
“If Jeff Landry wants a statue of a white nationalist on the LSU campus, it shouldn’t be Charlie Kirk,” Mann wrote.
“Shouldn’t he be honoring our home-grown racists, like David Duke (who actually went to LSU)?”
Charlie Kirk attends Politicon 2018 at Los Angeles Conference Middle on October 20, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Picture by Phillip Faraone/Getty Pictures for Politicon)
Quite a few educators and college students throughout the state of Louisiana had been fast to echo Mann’s remarks.
LSU girls’s basketball star Flau’jae Johnson additionally blasted the Landry’s name for a Kirk memorial on campus.
“For the sake of clarity,” she wrote on X, based on TMZ, “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.”
“Sooo my governor wants LSU to put up a statue of someone who created an organization with the specific goal of targeting and harassing professors,” wrote Nicole Gasparini, an affiliate professor of environmental sciences at Tulane College.
This photograph taken on December 22, 2024 exhibits US right-wing activist Charlie Kirk talking on stage at America Fest 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Picture by JOSH EDELSON/AFP through Getty Pictures)
Johnson — a senior guard for the LSU Tigers — has not commented additional on the choice.
Which is smart, as she made herself fairly clear in her preliminary comment.
Landry has not replied to the criticism surrounding his comment, and it is likely to be a useless problem, as the concept for a Kirk memorial doesn’t appear to have a lot assist amongst LSU directors and employees.
In spite of everything, Kirk had no robust ties to the college, and the concept of memorializing a current, controversial political determine in an effort to shield free speech doesn’t actually make a lot sense.
In all probability, Governor Landry was merely utilizing Kirk’s dying to additional his political agenda — a development that’s nearly sure to proceed within the months and years to come back.
