The University of Mississippi has fired Lauren Stokes, the executive assistant to the vice chancellor, for sharing a post on social media that criticized conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s views after his assassination on Wednesday.
An Instagram post she shared from another user referred to “yt supremacist and reimagined Klan members like Kirk” as having “wreaked havoc on our communities, condemning children and the populace at large to mass death for the sake of keeping their automatic guns” and “incited and clapped for the brutalizing of Black and Brown bodies.”
The post, which Magnolia Tribune first reported on, also said that people like Kirk “have willingly advocated to condemn children and survivors of (sexual assault) to forced pregnancy and childbirth” and opposed life-saving medical care to people suffering miscarriages. Stokes, who is white, did not write the text of the post she shared.
UM Chancellor Glenn F. Boyce addressed Stokes’ decision to share the post and announced that she was no longer with the university in a public statement on Thursday, calling the remarks “hurtful” and “insensitive.”
“These comments run completely counter to our institutional values of civility, fairness, and respecting the dignity of each person,” Boyce said. “All of us have a responsibility to take seriously our commitment to upholding a civil and respectful campus environment. Our prayers are with the Kirk family, as well as members of our campus community who are affected by this senseless act of violence.”
The Mississippi Free Press reached out to Stokes for comment, but the family did not want to speak on the matter at this time.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Mississippi United Campus Workers denounced Stokes’ firing.
“Employees have a right to a private life outside of their jobs,” the statement said. “That private life includes the right to share openly on social media. When speaking on matters of public concern and in their capacity as private citizens, all employees at the University of Mississippi ought to be able to speak freely, without fear of retaliation from the administration or state legislators. UCW-MS calls on the administration of the University of Mississippi to uphold the free speech and privacy rights of all university employees and to create an environment in which people can speak without fear of retaliation.”
The firing came after Mississippi State Auditor Shad White, a Republican, tagged the university in a social media post with a photo of Stokes and a screenshot of the post she shared.
“To @olemiss, did an Ole Miss employee just repost this insane reaction to Charlie Kirk’s murder? Answer,” White wrote on Thursday morning.
In 2020, White also targeted a University of Mississippi sociology professor who participated in an anti-racism strike.
Kirk’s Rhetoric Stoked Controversy
The post that Lauren Stokes shared alluded to the oftentimes inflammatory ideas that Kirk built his career on through his podcasts, videos and public engagements.
When asked about gun violence during a TPUSA Faith event in April 2023, Kirk said it is a “prudent deal” to accept some gun deaths in exchange for protecting gun rights.
“I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” he said.
Kirk claimed on The Charlie Kirk Show in May 2023 that across “all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact.”
While discussing journalist Joy Reid, former First Lady Michelle Obama, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and deceased U.S. House Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee—all Black women—on The Charlie Kirk Show in July 2023, he called those women “affirmative action picks.”
“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,” the podcaster said.
When asked in September 2024 if he would force a 10-year-old girl who was raped to carry a pregnancy to term, Kirk said, “yes, the baby would be delivered.”
Kirk also vociferously opposed transgender rights. On his show in April 2024, he called for “a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor.” Kirk’s organization also maintained a “Professor Watchlist” that tracked college professors that the organization claimed espoused left-wing ideologies.
Suspect Arrested in Shooting
On Friday morning, officials confirmed the arrest of a suspect in Charlie Kirk’s murder, 22-year-old Utah resident Tyler Robinson. His motives remain unknown.
On the day of the shooting, however, Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves immediately blamed political opponents for the shooting.
“The left has decided that assassination and violence is their response to debate,” Reeves wrote on Facebook Wednesday, days before the suspect had been identified. “It’s hard to process what that will mean for America.”
Speaking Friday morning, Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Robinson was opposed to Kirk’s beliefs, but did not elaborate.
Comments are closed.