NAU removes student art print depicting Charlie Kirk’s murder

After far-right activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot in September, right-wing social media accounts came after professors, reporters and everyday residents if they dared to criticize Kirk’s legacy. A sober accounting of Kirk’s controversies was viewed as glorifying the Turning Point founder’s death, and right-wing shit-stirrers like LibsofTikTok eagerly went after anyone who committed such a sin.

LibsofTikTok — the X account run by provocateur Chaya Raichik — is at it again, though this time she might have a point. On Tuesday, the account posted a photo of a print that it claimed was “spotted at an ‘art exhibit’” at Northern Arizona University. The print featured the words “Cowa Bummer” and shows a white silhouette that is clearly Kirk spewing blood from his neck. The trajectory of the bullet is marked with a swastika.

Say what you will about Kirk’s legacy — he has certainly advocated for a number of heinous viewpoints — but yeah, that one seems to be glorifying his murder.

The post quickly sparked outcry, with social media users calling the print “disgusting” and “horrific.” It wasn’t all hate. Arizona’s top parody political account, The Real Thelma Johnson, gave the artist kudos, writing, “That’s a pretty good silk screen.”

NAU spokesperson Kim Ann Ott told Phoenix New Times that the print wasn’t part of a university exhibit. Rather, it was displayed in a “temporary, student-selected” art exhibit and “has since been removed,” she wrote in an email.

“NAU recognizes the broad range of free expression exercised by individuals in our community,” Ott wrote. “But the university does not endorse the viewpoints contained in individuals’ works that may be displayed.” 

Though LibsofTikTok demanded a response from NAU, it’s unclear if the account has heard directly from the university. Raichik did not respond to a message from New Times.

Kirk’s legacy has been a subject of heated debate ever since the controversial 31 years old was killed by 22-year-old alleged gunman Tyler Robinson on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University. After his death, Kirk was made out to be a free-speech martyr by many conservative leaders, who have proposed erecting Kirk memorials, renaming roads and highways after him and putting Kirk’s face on money.

However, many on the left have decried the whitewashing of Kirk’s history, which includes espousing extreme beliefs like that women should be subservient to their husbands, that prominent Black people had taken positions from worthier whites and that LGBTQ+ people should be marginalized.

But Kirk supposedly cared about free speech more than anything. The print at NAU — however gruesome or in bad taste — is the type of thing a truly committed free speech absolutist would have defended as having a right to exist.