Black Texas Tech Student Expelled, Arrested For Mocking Charlie Kirk
Black Texas Tech Student Expelled, Arrested For Mocking Charlie Kirk’s Death
A Black student at Texas Tech was expelled and arrested for assault for mocking a memorial for slain conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
According to Fox 4, former student Camryn Booker was seen arguing with a fellow student during a memorial for Charlie Kirk in Texas Tech’s free speech area. She repeatedly told the students, “F – y’all, yo homie dead.” Eventually, police arrived on the scene and arrested Booker for assault. Allegedly, she flicked the hat of one of the people she was arguing with. Booker was detained on a $200 bond and has since been released.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted an image of Booker being arrested with the caption, “This is what happened to the person who was mocking Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Texas Tech. FAFO.” So you heard it here first, folks, Gov. Greg Abbott apparently believes you should be arrested for exercising your First Amendment right to crack jokes about a dead guy.
Texas Tech released a statement confirming that Camryn Booker was expelled. “Any behavior that denigrates victims of violence is reprehensible, has no place on our campus, and is not aligned with our values. Federal law prevents Texas Tech University from commenting on individual student conduct matters. We take all reported violations seriously and address them under university policy and the law,” Texas Tech said in a statement.
Ever since Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at Utah Valley University, there’s been an expectation that marginalized communities must perform grief for a man who would’ve never done the same for us.
To be clear: what happened to Charlie Kirk is a tragedy, but beyond understanding that killing a person is bad on an intellectual level, I don’t feel anything other than indifference. Sure, I guess the setting was shocking, but plenty of husbands, fathers, sons, and daughters get shot in America every day, and conservatives have consistently shown they believe that gun deaths are “worth it” to keep the Second Amendment as it stands.
So how bad are we supposed to feel?
How bad is a Black woman supposed to feel when a man who used his platform to consistently denigrate Black women dies? How bad are Black people supposed to feel for a man who believed the Civil Rights Act was a mistake and that we were better off under Jim Crow laws? How bad are Black people supposed to feel for a man who openly mocked the death of George Floyd?
For over a decade now, we’ve had to listen to Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro, and all the right-wing influencers use racist rhetoric, spout the most incendiary talking points, and downplay the deaths of Black people at the hands of state violence. Every time we push back and express discomfort about that rhetoric, we’re told that we must respect their First Amendment rights.
Yet when conservatives are faced with the same indifference and callousness in the wake of one of their own dying, suddenly that commitment to free speech and being anti-cancel culture goes out the window. There have been countless calls to treat all Democrats as terrorists, websites built to dox anyone online who’s been even remotely critical of Charlie Kirk after his death, and now, in the case of Camryn Booker, actual arrests for simply matching the exact same energy that conservatives have been giving for a decade and change.
I’m not celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk. I’m not advocating for more political violence. I simply refuse to be lectured about morality by a group of people who lionized Kyle Rittenhouse and are taking selfies outside Alligator Alcatraz. Conservatives set the tone, but what’s happened to Camryn Booker has shown that America believes free speech only goes one way.
SEE ALSO:
Charlie Kirk Shot And Killed Answering Gun Violence Question
Conservatives Blame Everyone Else For Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Killer
Washington Post Fires Karen Attiah For Charlie Kirk Posts
Black Pastors Refuse to Canonize Charlie Kirk
Charlie Kirk And The Cost Of US Gun Culture [Op-Ed]
Black Texas Tech Student Expelled, Arrested For Mocking Charlie Kirk’s Death was originally published on newsone.com
