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Charlie Kirk Debates Reparations with Engineering Graduate: Why Cultural Values Matter More Than Money
Charlie Kirk engages in a thoughtful exchange with a recent master's degree graduate in electrical engineering about reparations for black Americans. The conversation shifts from historical comparisons to a deeper examination of cultural values, educational choices, and economic outcomes. The graduate, who attended a majority-black college, shares observations about underrepresentation in high-paying fields like engineering, medicine, and business. Kirk argues that trillions spent since the 1960s haven't closed economic gaps, suggesting the issue is about values rather than resources. The discussion tackles uncomfortable truths about cultural priorities and what actually drives lasting economic success.
The Reparations Question
Charlie Kirk engaged in a compelling debate with an audience member about reparations for black Americans. The young man, a recent graduate with a master's degree in electrical engineering, opened the conversation by acknowledging that no black American alive has ever been a slave, but pointed out that reparations have been given to other ethnic groups throughout American history.
He cited examples including Asian-Americans for their incarceration during World War II and Native Hawaiians. He also noted that even former slave owners in the north were compensated when they had to give up their slaves. His question centered on why there seems to be significant pushback and even mockery when it comes to black people receiving reparations for historical wrongs.
The Intergenerational Distinction
Kirk responded by making a critical distinction between the examples provided and what's being discussed with black reparations. He pointed out that in the cases mentioned, reparations were given directly to the people who experienced the harm, not to their descendants generations later. The conversation was about something 150 years removed from the actual injustice.
Kirk also noted that not every black person is a descendant of slaves. Some are mixed race, and some are able to prove different ancestry. But he pivoted to what he considered the more important question: have we spent a lot of money on the black community over the last 50 years, and if so, has it worked?
A Graduate's Uncomfortable Truth
The engineering graduate then shared a perspective that clearly frustrated him to articulate. Having just completed his master's degree in electrical engineering two weeks prior, he described the extreme difficulty of the program. What stood out to him was the lack of black students in his classes, even though he attended a majority-black college.
He highlighted the economic implications of this underrepresentation. Engineering is one of the highest-paying fields, yet only about 5% of engineers are black. Less than 10% of physicians in America are black. Less than 10% of PhD students are black. The representation among CEOs is similarly low. Black Americans aren't entering accounting, engineering, medicine, or other high-paying fields in significant numbers.
Cultural Values and Economic Outcomes
The graduate attributed this pattern to culture. He explained that in black culture, going to college to be an accountant or engineer isn't considered cool. The culture pushes streaming, sports, and entertainment instead. He wasn't saying these career paths aren't pursued at all, just that they're not what the culture emphasizes.
He then posed a hypothetical about reparations. Even if you could give 13 million people $100,000 each without crashing the United States economy, what would happen to that money? His assessment was blunt: it would probably be spent on clothes and shoes because that's what the spending patterns show. He emphasized he wasn't stereotyping, just observing actual behavior.
The graduate pointed out that resources have been given, but they haven't been used to enter higher-paying fields for substantial and long-lasting change. Black Americans don't go into trades much either. Without addressing these fundamental choices, financial handouts won't create lasting economic improvement.
The Tulsa Exception
The graduate then brought up what he considered a test case: two Tulsa survivors, both over 100 years old, who tried to sue the Oklahoma government for reparations for their lost property. They were denied reparations despite being directly affected by the Tulsa race massacre.
He argued this case confirmed his suspicion that the issue was never really about whether people were directly affected or not. To him, it suggested a bias against black Americans receiving any form of reparations regardless of the circumstances.
Kirk's Values Argument
Kirk acknowledged he didn't know about that specific instance and said he would look into it. But he returned to his broader point: trillions of dollars have been spent trying to improve the well-being of black Americans since the 1960s. Despite this massive investment, black America is actually poorer per capita and on average in relation to other groups than it was in the 1960s.
His conclusion was that it's not a resource or money issue. It's a values issue. And the values that are predominantly in the black community right now are, in his assessment, quasi-suicidal.
Commentary on Hard Truths
The video concluded with commentary affirming Kirk's position. The commentator, who identified himself as LFR Jojo, acknowledged that many people don't want to discuss these issues because they don't want to hurt feelings. But he agreed that the black community doesn't value certain things when it comes to finances, marriage, nuclear households, college, trades, or long-term careers.
He clarified that this doesn't mean the black community doesn't value anything, just that these particular areas aren't priorities. He noted he couldn't even say whether other cultures prioritize these things, but speaking specifically about black culture, these aren't emphasized. Until that changes, the financial position of the community won't improve substantially. That, he concluded, is just the truth.
Video Transcript
[00:00] Not every black person is a descendant
[00:02] of slave slaves. Correct? Some are, some
[00:05] are mixed race. Some are able to prove
[00:07] that. But I think more importantly, we
[00:10] should ask the question, have we spent a
[00:12] lot of money on the black community the
[00:14] last 50 years? And if so, has it worked?
[00:17] It's a good question because I mean
[00:20] obviously there are certain communities
[00:23] in black America that and that's my
[00:26] whole perspective on this and it really
[00:27] frustrates me to say this.
[00:30] All right. Well, good afternoon. Uh been
[00:33] a longtime fan, but thank you. Just talk
[00:35] right into the mic if you can, please.
[00:37] Okay.
[00:38] Um the topic I want to discuss with you
[00:40] today is um it's sorry it's on
[00:44] reparations but more so why there's a
[00:48] bias towards black Americans when it
[00:50] comes to reparations. Now I understand
[00:53] that no no black American alive has ever
[00:56] been a slave. I acknowledge that.
[00:58] However,
[01:03] sorry. Um, my the point I wanted to make
[01:06] is that um, reparations have been given
[01:08] to other ethnic groups, Asian-Americans
[01:11] for their incarceration during World War
[01:13] II, Native
[01:15] Hawaiians.
[01:17] Um, sorry, I wrote it all down. So, if
[01:20] you guys don't know what this debate
[01:21] about, I think we all know what this is
[01:22] about. We've actually done a lot of
[01:24] videos like this. It's about reparations
[01:27] towards the black community. Y'all know
[01:29] how I think about this, and I'm going to
[01:31] explain it more as the video progresses.
[01:33] Let's let's hear him out. Let's see what
[01:35] he has to say about
[01:36] this. Here we go. But uh even former
[01:40] slave owners uh specifically the ones in
[01:43] the north that had to give up their
[01:45] slaves, they were compensated for former
[01:48] slaves. However, why is it that uh when
[01:51] it comes to black people receiving
[01:53] reparations, there seems to be a lot of
[01:55] push back to the point where now, you
[01:58] know, there's, you know, now it's almost
[02:00] laughable to even think about black
[02:02] people getting reparations for something
[02:04] in the past. Well, for any of those
[02:06] examples, was there intergenerational
[02:08] reparations given? No. I So, they're not
[02:12] necessarily applicable, right? So, those
[02:14] were the actual people that received it
[02:16] because a wrong was done to them.
[02:17] Correct. We're talking about something
[02:19] 150 years removed. And also we not every
[02:22] black person is a descendant of slave
[02:25] slaves. Some are some are mixed race.
[02:28] Some are able to prove that. But I think
[02:31] more importantly we should ask the
[02:32] question, have we spent a lot of money
[02:35] on the black community the last 50
[02:37] years? And if so, has it worked?
[02:39] It's a good question because I mean
[02:42] obviously there are certain communities
[02:45] in black America that are not so great.
[02:48] And that's my whole perspective on this
[02:50] and it really frustrates me to say
[02:52] this. If you guys don't know me, y'all
[02:54] probably do. I have a master's degree in
[02:56] electrical engineering. I just graduated
[02:58] like two weeks ago with a masters. And
[03:00] it was hard. It was very hard. I'm not
[03:03] going to lie. It was very, very
[03:04] difficult. But in my classes, there
[03:08] weren't many black students. And I go to
[03:10] a black college. Or when I say a black
[03:12] college, I mean the college is majority
[03:14] black. Not meaning that it only accepts
[03:15] black people, but it's majority black.
[03:18] And there weren't many black students in
[03:20] a master's degree electrical engineering
[03:22] class. The reason I'm bringing that up
[03:24] is because engineering in general is one
[03:26] of the highest paying fields. But when
[03:29] you look around, only about 5% of
[03:32] engineers are even black. If you look at
[03:34] doctors, uh, less than 10% of, uh,
[03:36] doctors in America, physicians are
[03:38] black. Less than 10% of PhD students are
[03:41] black. Less less than a lot of CEOs are
[03:44] black. We aren't going
[03:47] into accountants. We aren't going into a
[03:50] lot of these higher paying fields. And
[03:52] the reason we're doing that is because
[03:54] of our culture. We we just don't we just
[03:56] don't go into them. Going to college to
[03:58] be an accountant in black culture is not
[04:00] cool. Going to college to be an engineer
[04:03] in black culture is not cool. Not saying
[04:05] it's not done. It's just not what the
[04:06] culture pushes. It pushes streaming. It
[04:08] pushes it
[04:10] pushes sports. It pushes um
[04:14] entertainment. And that's what it is.
[04:16] And because of that, we just aren't the
[04:18] highest paying major. I mean, we aren't
[04:19] the highest paying people on average. We
[04:21] don't go into trades that much either.
[04:24] We aren't going into these things. So,
[04:26] let's say you do give the black culture
[04:28] reparations. more than likely, do you
[04:30] think they're going to use them to first
[04:32] of all, I don't even know how you can
[04:33] financially give 13 million people a
[04:36] sustainable um or a substantial
[04:38] reparation without it crashing the
[04:40] United States economy. Nonetheless,
[04:41] let's act like money doesn't exist and
[04:43] we can just give everyone $100,000 who's
[04:46] African-American. You give 13 million
[04:48] people $100,000. This will probably just
[04:51] be spent on clothes and shoes because
[04:53] that's what we've been spending them on.
[04:54] I'm not trying to be have a stereotype.
[04:56] That's just what we spend our money on.
[04:58] We don't go into these fields and we've
[05:01] been given resources and we just don't
[05:03] use said resources to go into higher
[05:05] paying things for substantial and
[05:07] longlasting change. But let me know what
[05:09] you guys think. Uh let's continue this.
[05:11] You know, some of them some of the
[05:14] traumas and problems they have are of
[05:16] their own making. I acknowledge that.
[05:18] Thankfully, I was raised away from all
[05:19] that to loving parents. Um but and
[05:23] that's the greatest thing that you are
[05:24] one of the if not the greatest and
[05:26] that's my hope for every child black,
[05:28] white or Asian to have two parents. That
[05:30] is a ticket to success. Please continue.
[05:32] But um the example I wanted to use was
[05:35] the two Tulsa survivors. Um they tried,
[05:39] you know, they're aged, you know, over
[05:41] 100 years old. They've tried to sue the
[05:43] Oklahoma government for reparations for
[05:45] their lost property. And they were
[05:48] actually denied reparations. And to me
[05:51] when when I read about that because that
[05:53] to me that was kind of the test to see
[05:55] like okay they say reparations shouldn't
[05:58] go to people who weren't directly
[05:59] affected. Well here we have two people
[06:00] who were directly affected who were
[06:02] there and they were still denied
[06:04] reparations. So to me that kind of
[06:07] confirmed that it was never about who
[06:09] was directly affected or not. To me it
[06:12] just sounds like there's a bias towards
[06:14] black Americans. Okay. I don't know
[06:16] about that instance. I'll look into it.
[06:17] Um, but more broadly, I do want to just
[06:20] repeat the point and something to think
[06:22] about. You don't have to answer it. That
[06:24] we've spent trillions of dollars on
[06:26] trying to improve the well-being of
[06:27] black Americans since the 1960s. And
[06:30] actually, black America is poorer per
[06:31] capita and on average in relation to
[06:34] other groups than it was in the 1960s.
[06:36] So, I would argue it's actually not a
[06:38] resource or a money thing. It's a values
[06:40] thing. And the values, unfortunately,
[06:42] that are predominantly in the black
[06:43] community right now are quasi suicidal.
[06:48] Fair point. But yeah, bas basically I
[06:51] just wanted you to I didn't know if I
[06:53] was going to change your mind, but it's
[06:54] something I wanted you to think about.
[06:56] I'll research the example that you gave
[06:57] and uh thank you for watching our
[06:59] content and being a supporter.
[07:00] Definitely. Would you like a hat? Signed
[07:02] hat. Thank you. Yes, bro. He's Charlie
[07:04] Kirk is 100% right on this. And a lot of
[07:06] people don't talk about it because they
[07:08] don't want to hurt people's feelings,
[07:09] but he's right. He's really really
[07:11] right. Like we just don't value certain
[07:14] things. And I'm not saying we don't
[07:15] value anything because obviously that's
[07:17] not true. The black community values a
[07:20] lot of things. It's just when it comes
[07:21] to finances and and marriage and uh um a
[07:26] nuclear household and college or or
[07:29] trade or a career, a 40-year long
[07:31] career. It's not a super popular thing
[07:35] worldwide for a black culture. It's just
[07:39] it's just not. Um I don't even know if
[07:41] it is for other cultures. I'm just
[07:43] speaking about black culture. It's just
[07:45] not a thing. And if we did that, we
[07:46] would just be in a better financial
[07:48] position. Until we do that, we we won't
[07:51] be in a better financial position. And
[07:52] that's just the truth. But nonetheless,
[07:54] let me know what you guys think about
[07:55] this. My name is LFR Jojo, and I'll see
[07:57] you on the next one.
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