Photo: Getty
His comments were pretty disgusting.
By Bernadette Giacomazzo — Written on Jun 25, 2019
After the tragic shooting at Majorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Kyle Kashuv emerged as the sole conservative, pro-gun voice of the survivors. And while he, like a few of his classmates, was scheduled to attend Harvard, the esteemed Ivy League school rescinded his admission after reports of his past racist comments came to light. Who is Kyle Kashuv?
Thanks to the nature of the Internet, Kyle Kashuv’s past misdeeds came to light in a manner that was just as vicious as the statements he’d initially made.
Here’s what we know about Kyle Kashuv and his racist comments.
1. The comments were both racially and ethnically offensive and directed towards a female classmate.
According to NPR, the comments that got Kyle Kashuv in trouble were racially and ethnically offensive and were directed towards a female classmate.
“On May 23, the Huffington Post published messages written by Kashuv that contained repeated uses of the N-word and phrases like "Kill all the f—ing Jews." According to the Huffington Post, the screenshots of the texts, Skype conversations and Google documents were provided by classmates and a former friend of Kashuv,” reports the outlet, who subsequently claimed that Kashuv admitted to using “callous and inflammatory language,” but claimed that it was merely because he was trying to be as “offensive” as possible and that the shooting changed his perspective on things.
2. Conservative commentators, perhaps unsurprisingly, are defending Kyle Kashuv.
There’s a list a mile long of so-called “conservative commentators” that have come out of the woodwork to defend Kyle Kashuv’s disgusting comments. Ben Shapiro, who took to Twitter to blame Trayvon Martin’s death on Trayvon Martin instead of on George Zimmerman, said that Harvard was holding Kashuv to “an impossible, cruel standard.” David Brooks of the New York Times argued that Kashuv deserved forgiveness (a forgiveness, it should be noted, he wasn’t willing to extend to Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, and Michael Brown — teenagers all, all of whom were gunned down needlessly, and all of whom Brooks sniffed were responsible for their own deaths because “respect wasn’t given”). And it goes without saying that there has been a glut of ultra-conservative and racist neo-Nazi boards that have had plenty of nasty things to say about Harvard’s decision to rescind their offer for enrollment.
3. But most people believe that Kyle Kashuv’s punishment fits the crime.
Writing for The Root, Michael Harriot is verbalizing what the vast majority of people believe: Kyle Kashuv is getting what he deserves, and he should be held accountable for his actions.
“If you are white, then America is the land of “second chances”— especially if you are a white child. Simply by being born with white skin, this sweet land of liberty a bequeaths you an endless supply of mulligans. Take, for instance, the case of Kyle Kashuv, who survived the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, became a conservative, pro-gun advocate and was subsequently accepted to Harvard University,” he wrote. When Harvard rescinded their invite, “The New York Times’ Caucasian apologist editorial staff rang the alarm and dispatched columnist David Brooks to explain why this innocent little sayer-of-racist-sh*t should be excused from his actions.”
4. This isn’t the first time that Harvard has rescinded an admission offer because of racially charged comments made by prospective students.
Despite his claims of persecution, Kyle Kashuv is far from the first student to have his admission offer rescinded because of racially charged comments.
In a different report for NPR, it was revealed that in 2017, Harvard rescinded admission offers of more than 10 students due to their racially charged comments made in a private Facebook group.
“The students in question admitted in early December, formed a group chat known variously as "General F**kups" and "Harvard memes for horny bourgeois teens." At one time, it had as many as 100 members. They sent one another images with captions that were racist and anti-Semitic and that made light of pedophilia, among other offensive themes,” reported the outlet.
Sounds like Kyle Kashuv got exactly what he deserved.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series. For more information about Bernadette Giacomazzo, click here.