A former journalist for the Washington Post, Karen Attiah, has said the daily newspaper fired her last week after she posted a condemnation of political violence, which included a citation to Charlie Kirk's demeaning comments on Black women.
"Last week, the Washington Post fired me. The reason? Speaking out against political violence, racial double standards, and America's apathy toward guns," Attiah said on Monday in a Substack post.
"My most widely shared thread was not even about activist Charlie Kirk, who was horribly murdered, but about the political assassinations of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman, her husband and her dog. I pointed to the familiar pattern of America shrugging off gun deaths, and giving compassion for white men who commit and espouse political violence," she said.
After the killing of Kirk, Attiah took to Bluesky to point to the indifferent reaction to the shooting of two Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota.
"For everyone saying political violence has no place in this country… Remember, two Democratic legislators were shot in Minnesota just this year. And America shrugged and moved on," she said on Bluesky on September 10, right after the incident.
Attiah said she fulfilled her journalistic duty by condemning the violence, even though the victim, Kirk, was a man who spoke ill of Black women.
"Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person's slot," Kirk's comments, which Attiah cited, said.
'Gross misconduct'
The columnist said her post didn't stir any controversy or draw any public backlash.
Yet, the Post accused her posts of being "unacceptable" and "gross misconduct" that endangers the safety of colleagues.
"They rushed to fire me without even a conversation — claiming disparagement on race. This was not only a hasty overreach but a violation of the very standards of journalistic fairness and rigour the Post claims to uphold," she added.
"The suspect in Kirk's killing is indeed a young white man, and already, lawmakers are urging us to pray for him. The media is painting the 22-year-old as a good, all-American suburban kid. The cycle I mentioned has once again come to pass."
She said after her firing, Washington, DC, no longer has a "paper that reflects the people it serves."
After the killing of Kirk, right-wing figures launched a campaign of doxing and threatening people who make light of his death.
Reports say many lost their jobs over comments they made about Kirk's death, and the White House just recently vowed to crack down on "left-wing terror", claiming it played a role in his killing.
