Conservative provocateur Charlie Kirk is coming to Burlington.
And his Oct. 18 speaking event is already generating controversy — and confusion — among the Queen City’s residents. The originally advertised venue for the event is no longer hosting Kirk. And his appearance is not sponsored by the University of Vermont, even though the online event listing includes the institution’s name in its title.
Kirk is coming to Burlington as a part of his “Exposing Critical Racism Tour,” a speaking circuit that he’s bringing to college towns across the country. He is the founder of conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, an organization that, according to its website, aims to “organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government.”
A political agitator, Kirk has garnered criticism for promoting inflammatory politics and distorting the truth, particularly around the Covid-19 pandemic. He has close ties to the Trump family and has been lauded by former President Donald Trump as “a great warrior.”
Kirk is anchoring his event on the recent conservative outrage about critical race theory, a framework that aims to understand and critique how systemic racism is ingrained in American society through, but not limited to, its legal systems, education, housing and employment.
Conservatives have recently taken issue with the concept. They argue that critical race theory is racist toward white people and that the framework promotes divisiveness.
A nationwide push among conservatives aims to ban the theory from public schools — an effort that teachers have pushed back on, including in Vermont. Many educators have said that the high-level theoretical concept isn’t explicitly taught in schools but that teaching students about inequality and racism is essential.
In a video uploaded to Kirk’s YouTube channel in December 2020, he tells an audience in Atlanta, Georgia, that critical race theory represents “this ridiculous lie that America is systemically racist to its bones.” He said it’s a dangerous school of thought that is convincing Black Americans that they’ll never progress in the country’s racist systems.
Some students in UVM’s political clubs say Kirk is purposefully misunderstanding critical race theory to drive reactionary politics among conservatives.
“Aside from the fact that Charlie Kirk has based his career on incorrect, inflammatory remarks in order to foster a sense of ‘us against them,’ he is coming to Burlington … for a platform to spread white supremacy and the harm that will do is reprehensible,” UVM senior Sinéad Murray, who is vice president of the UVM Progressives club, told VTDigger in an email.
“The best professors I have learned from have used Critical Race Theory as cornerstones in their teaching,” Murray added. “[Turning Points USA] blatantly compares this theory to Jim Crow and Kirk has no place speaking about CRT at an institution of higher education as if this is the truth.”
UVM junior Michael Gutterman, who is president of the UVM Democrats club, told VTDigger that he doesn’t think Kirk or his followers fully understand critical race theory.
“They’re only looking at very limited aspects instead of the overall goal,” he said, “which is trying to give people an honest look at racial history.”
Left-leaning activist group BTV Copwatch published an article asking people to reserve free seats to the event and not show up. They also directed people to call the downtown Burlington Hilton Hotel and ask them to back out of hosting Kirk’s tour.
The event listing originally included the Hilton Hotel as the venue for the event, but the site’s location details have since been changed to “TBA.” Hotel General Manager Pete Engard told VTDigger that the hotel had never contracted with Turning Point USA and that he asked the group to remove the hotel from the event listing.
Turning Point did not respond to requests for comment from VTDigger. Turning Point USA organizer Savannah Coelho told the Vermont Daily Chronicle that the tour has multiple backup plans for a venue and that the event will go on at the same time and date.
While Kirk’s appearance is titled “Exposing Critical Racism Tour at University of Vermont,” the event is not happening at the university and is not a university affiliated event, according to UVM spokesperson Enrique Corredera.
It’s unclear whether a university club had a hand in organizing the event.
Delaney Courcelle, president of the UVM College Republicans club, told VTDigger her organization had no involvement with the event. There is a Turning Point USA at University of Vermont Facebook page that was active in March, but there is no chapter registered on the university’s clubs website.
Courcelle said she recognizes that Kirk is controversial and she understands why people don’t want him speaking in the city. She said she agrees with some Turning Point USA positions and disagrees with others.
“But I think that regardless of whether you like him or not, you can’t bar him from speaking at an event,” Courcelle said.
“I think it’s just a great thing to encourage people to actually do show up,” she added. “If you want to ask him questions or you want to respectfully disagree, this is that type of venue to be able to do that.”
Gutterman, of the UVM Democrats, said he thinks people just shouldn’t go to the event.
“I don’t mind the City of Burlington welcoming people with differing views. I think that’s important,” Gutterman said. “I just think that they need to be in good faith and I don’t think that this organization has differing views in good faith.”
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