Mere hours after the murder of conservative political activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk last Wednesday, social media was flooded with posts reacting to the news. While most expressed sorrow and sympathy for Kirk’s widow and two young children, many social media users made light of, or even celebrated, the assassination.
Among those who had less than sympathetic things to share were faculty and staff members at the University of Alabama.
A request for further information about potential review and discipline for their conduct was left with the university on Tuesday by Yellowhammer News, but went unreturned at time of publication.
The following is a breakdown of those posts.
A.J. Bauer
Assistant professor A.J. Bauer, who teaches in UA’s Journalism and Creative Media Department, has been lambasted by Alabama’s top political leaders after making an X post that insinuated that Kirk’s assassin was a Republican.
“This right on right violence is out of control,” Bauer wrote on Friday morning.
Political commentator CJ Pearson, who attended UA for several years, called Bauer out on X, writing, “He should be FIRED.”
U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) seconded Pearson’s call for Bauer to lose his job, and 2026 Alabama Attorney General candidate Katherine Robertson wrote that people who cannot sympathize with Kirk’s family should refrain from posting on social media about his murder.
Rahim Thawer
An instructor in UA’s School of Social Work, Rahim Thawer, shared a Facebook post by the Yellowhammer Fund, an abortion advocacy organization that works throughout Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, that drew attention to Kirk’s race and his “violent rhetoric.” The post, in its entirety, reads:
In a country where the death of one white person (who lived violent rhetoric) is deserving of a national outpouring of support and condemnation of violence yet systematic violence against communities of color, marginalized genders, poor folks, and the disabled has never been cause enough to mobilize across the political spectrum we shouldn’t be surprised fascism has ALWAYS had a foothold here.
Thawer’s profile on UA’s School of Social Work faculty directory states that he has expertise in studies such as ‘LGBTQ+ Muslim Mental Health’ and ‘Systemic Sex Therapy.’
Earlier this year, he published a book entitled The Mental Health Guide for Cis and Trans Queer Guys, and his social media accounts show that another book, this one called Queer and Muslim, is available for pre-order.
Jaimie Tangman
Jaimie Tangman, a Cultural Resources Specialist and Osteologist under the UA Museums network, posted several comments mocking Kirk’s murder on local news pages’ announcements of Kirk’s death.
One photo Tangman posted quoted Kirk speaking about the word “empathy,” a quote that has been widely distorted by those celebrating the assassination to excuse their rhetoric.
Kirk’s full quote on the topic was, “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that — it does a lot of damage. But, it is very effective when it comes to politics. Sympathy, I prefer more than empathy.”
The University of Alabama Museums is made up of three on-campus museums — the Alabama Museum of Natural History, the Gorgas House Museum, and the Paul W. Bryant Museum — as well as Moundville Archeological Park.
These comments from UA faculty and staff have surfaced just as a nationwide uproar swells over university employees expressing joy at the news of Kirk’s brutal murder at Utah Valley University last Wednesday.
On Monday, Clemson University fired an employee who made disturbing posts following the assassination and stripped two others of their teaching duties, pending further action.
Riley McArdle is a contributor for Yellowhammer News. He is a Senior majoring in Political Science at the University of Alabama and currently serves as Chairman of the College Republican Federation of Alabama. You can follow him on X @rileykmcardle.
