Studying Time: 3 minutes
Within the six weeks since Charlie Kirk was shot and killed, the discourse over the conservative podcaster’s life and legacy has continuously 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 referred to as on directors at Louisiana State College to “discover a place” for the statue.
“We’re gonna put a problem out to the LSU board of supervisors to discover a place to place a statue of Charlie Kirk to defend freedom of speech on school campuses,” Landry stated, based on Fox Information.
“Come on, women and gents, let’s see if we could be the primary campus to do it,” Landry
In a publish on Bluesky, Professor Emeritus Robert Mann, who retired from LSU in 2024, blasted the thought and likened Kirk to late KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.
“If Jeff Landry desires 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 truly went to LSU)?”
Quite a few educators and college students throughout the state of Louisiana have 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 readability,” she wrote on X, based on TMZ, “in the event you align your self with or endorse his racist rhetoric and discriminatory views towards individuals of colour, I respectfully ask that you simply make the most of the unfollow choice on the high proper of my profile.”
“Sooo my governor desires LSU to place up a statue of somebody who created a company with the particular purpose of focusing on and harassing professors,” wrote Nicole Gasparini, an affiliate professor of environmental sciences at Tulane College.
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 may be a lifeless concern, as the thought for a Kirk memorial doesn’t appear to have a lot assist amongst LSU directors and employees.
In any case, Kirk had no sturdy ties to the college, and the thought of memorializing a latest, controversial political determine in an effort to shield free speech doesn’t actually make a lot sense.
In all chance, Governor Landry was merely utilizing Kirk’s demise to additional his political agenda — a development that’s virtually sure to proceed within the months and years to come back.
