Karen Attiah, a noted Washington Post opinion columnist, said Monday that she had been fired over social media posts in the aftermath of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Kirk was fatally shot last week, allegedly by a lone gunman who is now in police custody.
Attiah’s firing adds to the widespread effort to crack down on the political left and those critical of Kirk ― who introduced a new generation to far-right beliefs ― and serves as the latest example of the Post’s ongoing evolution toward hyper-conservative opinion pages.
During her 11 years at the Post, Attiah wrote columns, was the newspaper’s first Global Opinions editor, and shared a 2019 George Polk award with writer David Ignatius “for eloquence and resolve in demanding accountability in the wake of the gruesome murder of Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.”
Advertisement
“I was the last remaining Black full-time opinion columnist at the Post, in one of the nation’s most diverse regions. Washington D.C. no longer has a paper that reflects the people it serves,” Attiah wrote in a Substack post Monday. “What happened to me is part of a broader purge of Black voices from academia, business, government, and media — a historical pattern as dangerous as it is shameful — and tragic.”
In February, Jeff Bezos, the Post’s owner, announced that the paper’s opinion section would be “writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.” Opinion editor David Shipley resigned over the change. The new editor, Adam O’Neal, said in June that opinion page editors would be “unapologetically patriotic” and that the section’s philosophy would be “rooted in fundamental optimism about the future of this country.” Along the way, many journalists have left the paper.
In the aftermath of the Kirk shooting, Attiah plainly denounced murder, but also posted and reposted several opinions on gun violence and racism in America ― as might be expected from an opinion writer.
Advertisement
Nonetheless, Attiah was fired for, as she described it, “Speaking out against political violence, racial double standards, and America’s apathy toward guns.” She said the Post had alleged that her posts, on the Bluesky platform, were “unacceptable,” “gross misconduct” and endangered her colleagues’ physical safety — “charges without evidence, which I reject completely as false,” Attiah wrote.
“For the record. My posts were not even about Kirk directly, but about America’s apathy towards political violence, and the coddling of white male shooters and hate peddlers,” she added separately. “I was fired because I mentioned race: white men and violence― that was my ‘gross misconduct.’”
HuffPost wasn’t able to reach Attiah for further comment, and a Post spokesperson declined to comment “on personnel matters.”
Advertisement
The Washington Post Guild, the union for the paper’s employees, condemned Attiah’s firing and said it would continue to “support her and defend her rights.”
The Post “flagrantly disregarded standard disciplinary processes” and “undermined its own mandate to be a champion of free speech” by firing Attiah “over her social media posts,” guild leadership wrote in a statement Monday.
Attiah highlighted a few of her Bluesky posts in the Substack post announcing she had been fired:
I wish I had hope for gun control and that I could believe “political violence has no place in this country”. But we live in a country that accepts white children being massacred by gun violence. Not just accepts, but worships violence.
— Karen Attiah (@karenattiah.bsky.social) 2025-09-10T20:57:39.217Z
Advertisement
Political violence has no place in this country… But we will also do nothing to curb the availability of the guns used to carry out said violence. The denial and empty rhetoric is learned helplessness— because the truth is.. America is sick and there is no cure in sight.
— Karen Attiah (@karenattiah.bsky.social) 2025-09-10T21:30:09.516Z
Because America, especially white America is not going to do what it needs to do to get rid of the guns in their country. It will be thoughts and prayers, “violence has no place” out of a performance of goodness, not out of the resolve to convince their communities to disarm.
— Karen Attiah (@karenattiah.bsky.social) 2025-09-10T22:05:48.647Z
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.
— Karen Attiah (@karenattiah.bsky.social) 2025-09-10T20:53:24.741Z
Advertisement
Part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence.
— Karen Attiah (@karenattiah.bsky.social) 2025-09-10T21:56:33.956Z
Again. I don’t care for empty rhetoric.
— Karen Attiah (@karenattiah.bsky.social) 2025-09-10T22:07:44.243Z
“Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot”. -Charlie Kirk
— Karen Attiah (@karenattiah.bsky.social) 2025-09-11T01:40:48.549Z
Advertisement
That last post is a slight misquote. Kirk, in a 2023 discussion of affirmative action, didn’t refer to “Black women” generally. Instead, according to a widely-circulated clip, he called out four Black women in particular ― journalist Joy Reid, former first lady Michelle Obama, the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — who had all commented on the court majority’s ruling against the constitutionality of affirmative action in colleges and universities.
“You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously,” Kirk said at the time, after referring to the women. “You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.”
PowerOurJournalism
Your SupportFuelsOur Mission
Your SupportFuelsOur Mission
Your membership fuels reporting that informs, inspires, and holds power accountable. Stand with us in this work – become a member now.
Join, Read, Impact
We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves.
Thank you again for your support along the way. We’re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again.
We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves.
Thank you again for your support along the way. We’re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again.
Support HuffPost
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
Advertisement