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Charlie Kirk is the Founder and President of Turning Point USA, the largest and fastest growing conservative youth activist organization in the country with over 250,000 student members, over 150 full-time staff, and a presence on over 2,000 high school and college campuses nationwide. Charlie is also the Chairman of Students for Trump, which aims to activate one million new college voters on campuses in battleground states in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. His social media reaches over 100 million people per month and according to Axios, he is one of the "top 10 most engaged" Twitter handles in the world. He is also the host of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” which regularly ranks among the top news shows on Apple podcast charts.
Charlie Kirk Challenges Student on Black Lives Matter and American Lives Matter Debate on Campus
Charlie Kirk confronts a student who questions his "American Lives Matter" shirt at a campus event. What begins as a question about the shirt's message quickly turns into a heated debate about racism, police brutality, crime statistics, and family structure in America. Kirk challenges the student to name specific examples of systemic racism and rights that white Americans have that black Americans don't, while the student argues about marginalization and over-policing. The exchange culminates in a discussion about fatherlessness in black communities and whether this issue supersedes claims of systemic racism.
During a campus appearance, Charlie Kirk was confronted by a student about his "American Lives Matter" shirt. When asked about his intended message, Kirk was direct: "I think that we should put Americans above foreigners." He acknowledged that the phrase was deliberately modeled after Black Lives Matter, stating, "I'm intentionally appropriating it."
Kirk clarified his position, explaining that while BLM is not a movement he associates with, he believes "all lives matter, American lives matter. If you're a black American, Hispanic American, I don't care. All Americans' lives matter."
The Challenge: Name One Right
The student pressed Kirk, asking if he would recognize groups who have been historically marginalized and are now asking for the same rights and privileges as white people in society. Kirk immediately countered with a direct question: "What rights do white people have that blacks don't?"
The student attempted to explain that the issue isn't necessarily written in law, to which Kirk responded, "So it's like hidden? It's like a ghost you see it one day and you don't?" Kirk continued pressing: "What privilege do I as a white person have that a black person doesn't? What can a white person do in America that a black person cannot do? Be specific, name one thing."
Police Brutality and Crime Statistics
Unable to provide a specific legal right that differs by race, the student pivoted to discussing racism as "the lack of opportunities because of a race, the kind of like putting a person to a side." When Kirk asked for a single example in the last 20 years where blacks were discriminated against en masse, the student cited "police brutality and over-incarceration."
Kirk then introduced crime statistics into the discussion: "What percentage of murders do black Americans commit in America?" The student attempted to explain this through the lens of over-policing in lower-income communities. Kirk challenged this reasoning: "You're trying to say that over-policing, even if that existed, which it doesn't, leads to the fact that 13% of the US population accounts for 55% of the murders in America?"
The student maintained that "there is a target on people of color's backs," but when Kirk asked for proof, requesting "one example, one piece of evidence that there's a target on black people's backs," the student couldn't provide specifics. Kirk then pointed to what he sees as the opposite dynamic: "Black students can get into this college with lower test scores than white students. It's called affirmative action. So now white people are the people who are struggling. Are they the marginalized ones?"
Defunding Police and Crime Rates
The conversation touched on police funding, with Kirk noting, "We have defunded the police in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, largely defunded it. We saw crime rates go up." The student attempted to connect economic opportunities to crime, suggesting that when a group doesn't get higher-paying jobs due to racial discrimination, it makes entire communities more prone to lower income, which is "directly related to more crime activity."
Kirk asked for an example of where such job discrimination happened recently, but the student couldn't provide one.
The Fatherlessness Issue
Kirk then shifted the conversation to what he considers a more fundamental issue: "What percentage of young blacks have both a mom and a dad raising them?" When the student couldn't provide a percentage, Kirk stated: "25%. So only one out of four blacks in America have a mom and a dad around."
He then posed a critical question: "Do you think that is a bigger issue to address than racism? Do you think more dads is a better solution or tackling racism which you say you can't even see in our laws?"
The student asked how dads could be connected directly to the issue. Kirk responded emphatically: "Dads are very connected. When you have a dad around, you're less likely to be violent as a male, less likely to go to prison. So explain to me why all the fathers are leaving."
The Exchange Intensifies
Kirk offered his own explanation: "Black women married the government and divorced the men that they were once with." When challenged to talk about white people instead, Kirk declared, "I'm a realist, not a racist."
The exchange ended with Kirk calling out someone in the audience who apparently shouted an accusation from a distance: "Could you come up to the mic and call me a racist in my face? Are you an intellectual coward and want to shout it from 30 feet away?"
