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Washington Post fires black woman who quoted what Charlie Kirk said about black women [1]
['Rob Beschizza']
Date: 2025-09-15
After the horrific assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah wrote about the empty platitudes of conservatives who indulge in violent rhetoric when it suits them. She later quoted, without comment, something Kirk wrote about women such as herself: "Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person's slot."
The Washington Post fired her for this, she writes, accusing her of "gross misconduct" and claiming she threatened the safety of her colleagues.
On Bluesky, in the aftermath of the horrific shootings in Utah and Colorado, I condemned America's acceptance of political violence and criticized its ritualized responses — the hollow, cliched calls for "thoughts and prayers" and "this is not who we are" that normalize gun violence and absolve white perpetrators especially, while nothing is done to curb deaths. I expressed sadness and fear for America. … My journalistic and moral values for balance compelled me to condemn violence and murder without engaging in excessive, false mourning for a man who routinely attacked Black women as a group, put academics in danger by putting them on watch lists, claimed falsely that Black people were better off in the era of Jim Crow, said that the Civil Rights Act was a mistake, and favorably reviewed a book that called liberals "Unhumans". In a since-deleted post, a user accused me of supporting violence and fascism. I made clear that not performing over-the-top grief for white men who espouse violence was not the same as endorsing violence against them. My only direct reference to Kirk was one post— his own words on record.
What Attiah quoted reasonably condenses what Kirk said on his podcast, referring to the "affirmative action picks" of Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson: "You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person's slot to go be taken somewhat seriously."
Attiah says she was fired without a conversation.
Post owner Jeff Bezos was content to be seen with Attiah when she was winning his newspaper awards for journalism. Now the last remaining full-time black opinion columnist there is gone.
Image: Karen Attiah
I am proud of my eleven years at the Post. Beyond awards and recognition, the greatest honor has been working with brilliant colleagues and connecting with readers and writers around the world. To all who have supported me, read me, even those who disagreed with me— I say, thank you. You've made me a better writer, thinker, and person.
Conservatives and Republicans are virtually unanimous in calling for censorship, firings and even imprisonment for those criticizing or quoting Charlie Kirk after his death. As many of them cast themselves as "free speech" absolutists, the temptation is to accuse them of hypocrisy. But that would honor the false notion that they are failing to live up to standards they hold in good faith. The Kirk aftermath shows that they never believed any of it: speech is to them a prerogative. They have the freedom of it; others will hold their tongues.
Mainstream media dare not describe Kirk's beliefs without extraordinary care. Even his most crudely racist, sexist and antisemitic blurtings must be understood only in the light of some ever-shifting and subtle "context" that only the exhaustive listener may be literate enough to detect. An underlying dynamic is that Kirk was lately being cultivated as a Mr. Rogers for young conservatives; finding out about his past statements is genuinely surprising and disturbing to them. But the rush to praise Kirk in death was pioneered by other people fascinated by his ability to mainstream far-right beliefs. A deeper question is why these supposedly liberal commentators are so eager to live and work in the world Kirk dreamed of—one where Karen Attiah isn't taking up a slot.
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