If you’ve spent any time on the internet lately, you know the name Charlie Kirk usually comes with a side of heated debate. But lately, things have been different. Ever since his assassination in September 2025, the conversation hasn't just been about his politics—it’s been about his legacy, especially the things he said about Black women.
Honestly, it's a lot to wade through. People are either calling him a martyr for "meritocracy" or a figurehead for "bigotry." But if you actually look at the transcripts from The Charlie Kirk Show or his campus tours, the specific comments he made about Black women weren't just one-off remarks. They were part of a very specific, and highly controversial, worldview regarding DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and the Civil Rights Act.
The Pilot Comment That Started a Firestorm
In early 2024, Kirk said something that effectively broke the internet for a few weeks. It was during a segment where he was railing against corporate DEI initiatives. He basically admitted that if he saw a Black pilot in the cockpit, he’d find himself wondering if they were actually qualified or just a "diversity hire."
"If I see a Black pilot, I'm going to be like, boy, I hope he's qualified," Kirk said on January 23, 2024.
The backlash was instant. Pilots, activists, and even some fellow conservatives pointed out that the FAA doesn't exactly hand out licenses for "effort." But for Kirk, this wasn't about the individual pilot. It was about the perception he felt DEI created. He argued that by prioritizing race in hiring, you accidentally cast a shadow of doubt over every person of color in a high-stakes role. It’s a circular logic that many found deeply offensive because it essentially punishes the employee for the employer's policy.
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"Brain Processing Power" and Public Figures
Kirk didn't stop at pilots. He often targeted specific Black women in high-ranking positions, usually questioning their intellectual credentials. He had a particular habit of grouping women like Michelle Obama, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson together under the "affirmative action" label.
In July 2023, he went on a rant about these figures, suggesting they didn't have the "brain processing power" to be taken seriously on their own merit. He claimed they had to "steal a white person's slot" to get where they were.
Kinda wild, right? Especially when you consider the resumes involved. We’re talking about Harvard and Yale law graduates. Kirk himself was a college dropout—something his critics, like Zora Rodgers of The Observer, were always quick to point out. They argued that his obsession with their "qualifications" was less about merit and more about a 19th-century brand of pseudoscience that questions the inherent intelligence of Black people.
The "Moronic Customer Service" Remark
Sometimes his comments were less about high-level politics and more about everyday life, which honestly felt even more personal to a lot of people. On January 3, 2024, he described an interaction with a "moronic Black woman" in customer service. He told his audience that whenever he deals with a Black woman who isn't performing well at her job, he immediately wonders if she’s only there because of affirmative action.
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This is where the nuance of the "merit" argument usually falls apart for his critics. By his own admission, if a white person gives bad service, he likely just thinks they're bad at their job. But if a Black woman does it, it becomes a systemic failure of race-based policy. It’s that double standard that made his rhetoric so explosive.
Why MLK Became a Target
You might wonder why a guy who claimed to love "content of character" eventually turned on Martin Luther King Jr. In late 2023 and early 2024, Kirk started calling MLK "awful" and a "bad person." He even said the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a "huge mistake."
Why? Because he believed those laws paved the way for the "permanent DEI-type bureaucracy" we see today. He felt that once the government started regulating "private" discrimination, it was only a matter of time before they started mandating "forced" inclusion. To Kirk, Black women in power were the ultimate symbols of this shift. He saw them as the face of a new American order that he believed was fundamentally anti-white.
The Aftermath of the Assassination
The world of 2026 looks a lot different because of how Kirk’s life ended. After he was killed at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025, the tension over his words reached a breaking point.
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We saw:
- The "Charlie Kirk Data Foundation": A short-lived but terrifying website that doxed people who celebrated his death online.
- Mass Firings: Teachers in Texas and even members of the military faced investigations for their social media posts about him.
- A Political Vacuum: Figures like JD Vance have stepped in to pick up the mantle, often echoing Kirk's "merit over melanin" slogans but with a slightly more polished, "statesman-like" delivery.
What This Means for You
Whether you think Kirk was a brave truth-teller or a merchant of hate, his comments about Black women have fundamentally changed how we talk about race and work in America. We are currently in a period where "DEI" has become a four-letter word in many corporate boardrooms, largely thanks to the pressure campaigns started by Kirk and Turning Point USA.
Actionable Insights for Navigating This Landscape:
- Fact-Check the Resumes: When you hear someone labeled as an "affirmative action hire," actually look at their credentials. More often than not, the women Kirk targeted had higher educational honors than the people critiquing them.
- Understand the Legal Shift: Be aware that the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling on affirmative action has changed the legal landscape. The "merit" vs. "diversity" debate isn't just a Twitter fight anymore; it’s a compliance issue for almost every major employer.
- Separate Policy from Person: It's possible to critique a hiring policy without questioning the inherent "brain processing power" of an entire demographic. Learning to spot the difference between a political argument and a personal slur is key to maintaining sanity in 2026's media environment.
The debate over what Charlie Kirk said isn't going away. If anything, his death has immortalized these quotes, making them the battle lines for the next decade of American culture wars.