September 13, 2025
Bernice King On Charlie Kirk Comparisons To Her Father: ‘I Get Tired, Y’All’
King believes that political leaders need to do more than selectively quote her father, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, if they want to effect change.
Dr. Bernice King, the youngest daughter of civil and human rights icons Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, has had a busy week responding to the willful misinterpretations of both slain Christian Nationalist Charlie Kirk and her father, and understandably, she recently expressed her frustrations on social media.
One day after Kirk was killed, allegedly by Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old white man from Utah whose family are Mormons and Donald Trump supporters, in response to criticism of political violence in America, King placed the concept of political violence in America in its proper context.
“We need to stop the lie of ‘There’s no place for _____________ violence in this country.’ Because, clearly, there is a place. Historically and presently, this nation has been a place for policy violence, mass violence, genocidal violence, gun violence, economic violence, and other forms of violence,” King wrote.
She continued, “And, so, here we are. A day after Charlie Kirk was shot and killed. 24 years after 9/11. A day when people across the globe, including in Sudan, Gaza, Congo, Tigray, Yemen, and Ukraine, suffer the devastation of political violence. A day when the National Guard patrols the streets of D.C. A day when low-income, Black communities in Memphis are besieged by environmental injustice. A day to more urgently begin praying with our actions and with our collective call and work for true peace, which, as my father said, ‘is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.’”
Unfortunately, there would be more misrepresentations of her father’s work that King would have to address.
As The Grio reported, after a photo posted by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), which put Kirk in conversation with her father, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Jesus of Nazareth, spread on social media, Bernice King once again expressed her frustration with flagrant misrepresentations of her father in relation to Kirk.
“There are so many things wrong with this. So many. I get tired, y’all,” King wrote in response to Rep. Luna’s post.
The right has been busy trying to turn Kirk into a martyr for the cause of free speech, ignoring the mountain of racist, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic statements he has made throughout his career as a far-right firebrand.
Despite their attempts to portray him as a scion of free speech, the organization he founded, Turning Point USA, maintains a “professor watch list,” which is itself antithetical to the idea of free speech. Furthermore, some of his acolytes are now keeping a student or employee watch list via the Expose Charlie’s Murderers” website so they can target outspoken critics of Kirk.
As it relates to the inclusion of Jesus of Nazareth in the photo circulated by Rep. Luna, many white evangelicals (and some Black ones) have been actively engaging in the sanitization of Kirk’s legacy, wherein they have attempted to paint him as a man of God, ignoring his history of bigoted statements.
However, as John Fugelsang, the author of “Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds,” plainly laid out in an op-ed for Avid Reader Press, placing Kirk in conversation with the Son of God himself is a continuation of the way that the right has been invested in misrepresenting what Jesus had to say about Christianity.
“The parable of the Good Samaritan is Jesus specifically rejecting the idea of limiting compassion to one’s own group. A despised foreigner is the character who fulfills God’s command to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ Jesus wraps this up with the command: ‘Go and do likewise.’ This directly refutes any charming argument that Christians should prioritize care for ‘their own.’ Jesus called for his followers to sacrifice themselves at the expense of others,” Fugelsang argued.
Fugelsang’s argument in his op-ed is also related to the position King stated in the preamble to her statement, which is that although she has sympathy for Kirk’s children, political leaders need to do more than selectively quote her father if they actually want to effect change in the United States of America.
“It saddens me that Charlie Kirk’s children will likely one day view the video of their father being shot. No child anywhere should lose a parent in such a hateful, callous way,” King wrote.
She continued, “It will require much more than quoting my father for the United States to evolve from our current conundrum of multi-faceted violence, tragic apathy, and degrading policies.”
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