Which specific incidents feature Charlie Kirk using racist language on video?
Executive summary
Charlie Kirk is documented on audio/video using explicitly racist language in at least one identifiable instance — a podcast episode where he said “prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people,” which is available in circulated recordings and cited by reporting [1]. Other widely shared clips have been scrutinized: some show him making racially charged assertions (for example about prominent Black women being “affirmative-action picks” in a circulated video), while some viral claims — notably that he called an Asian woman a slur at Politicon — do not hold up to the available video evidence and have been debunked or clarified [2] [3] [4].
1. Verified: ‘prowling Blacks’ comment on The Charlie Kirk Show podcast
Multiple outlets cite an audio/video instance from The Charlie Kirk Show in which Kirk asserted, without presenting supporting evidence, that “prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people,” language racialized and framed as a pattern of criminal behavior by Black people [1]. That remark has been reported as part of a set of racist statements Kirk made over years and is specifically singled out by reporters and clergy responding to his rhetoric [1]. The existence of this podcast episode and its quoted language is reported directly in WUNC’s coverage of reactions and is treated as an audio-documented example [1].
2. Circulated video claiming he labeled prominent Black women ‘affirmative-action picks’
A widely shared clip and subsequent writeups attribute to Kirk a line suggesting that figures such as Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were “affirmative-action picks,” a framing explicitly captured in at least one video excerpt cited by secondary sources and aggregated on reference pages [2]. Wikipedia’s compilation of reprisals and other posthumous coverage reproduces that phrasing as coming from a recorded appearance, and major outlets like The Guardian and critics track similar statements among the catalogue of his public remarks [2] [4]. Reporting indicates this is part of his repeated pattern of dismissing systemic racism and accusing Black leaders of advancement due to preferences rather than merit [5] [4].
3. Viral claims debunked: the Politicon/Asian slur montage
A prominent viral claim — that Kirk repeatedly called an Asian woman a racial slur during a Politicon exchange — has been fact-checked and found inaccurate: the montage circulating on TikTok edits together footage and misreads his shouted name “Cenk” (referring to Cenk Uygur), rather than showing him use of the slur the posts allege [3]. FactCheck.org’s analysis traces the clip to an October 2018 Politicon confrontation and concludes the video does not show Kirk using that racial epithet, and the community annotation on X likewise clarifies the audio and context [3]. This is an example where viral rewrites of events have amplified a narrative not fully supported by the original footage.
4. Broader pattern, media aggregation, and competing narratives
Multiple outlets and watchdog groups — summarized in The Guardian and chronicled by organizations tracking extremist rhetoric — portray Kirk’s public record as one in which racist, sexist and nativist themes recur, often evidenced in speeches, podcasts and events [4] [5]. Media Matters and other trackers (referenced by The Guardian) have catalogued many of his remarks, and community responses after his death highlighted specific audio-recorded examples [4] [1]. At the same time, some social media posts have inflated or misattributed particular words to him, creating a mix of documented incidents and amplified, unverified claims that complicates the record [3].
5. Limits of reporting and final assessment
The reporting assembled here confirms at least one clear audio/video instance of Kirk using overtly racist language on his podcast (the “prowling Blacks” quote) and supports that he publicly made other racially disparaging claims documented in video clips (such as affirmative-action characterizations of Black public figures) while also noting that some viral video claims have been debunked [1] [2] [3] [4]. Available sources do not provide a single comprehensive archive within this dataset that lists every on-camera slur or phrase; where footage has been disputed, fact-checking has sometimes overturned social posts that misrepresent the original audio or visual record [3]. The public record assembled by mainstream outlets and watchdogs makes clear a pattern of racially charged rhetoric by Kirk across multiple formats, but precise attribution for each contested viral clip requires reviewing the primary video/audio files beyond the summarizing reports cited here [4] [2] [3] [1].