A statue on a campus is not an honor; it is a statement. And choosing to honor someone who stands for exclusion is absurd for an institution claiming to value learning, diversity, and forward movement. A statue is never just decoration. It is a choice. This is a message about who LSU admires and what kind of person they want future students to remember.
So if LSU puts up a statue of Charlie Kirk, they are not being neutral. They are choosing to connect LSU’s name and image with him and what he represents. And honestly, that is disturbing.
LSU already has a complicated history. Even if people do not talk about it, the energy of the past still hangs around the campus. So, seeing a statue of someone known for stirring up division instead of unity feels like LSU is reaching back into the past instead of moving forward. LSU sits right across the street from an HBCU, a place created because Black students were not welcomed at schools like LSU in the first place. When LSU decides to honor someone who openly disrespects marginalized people, it feels like a reminder. A reminder that some students will always be seen as less welcome.
The part that blows my mind is that Charlie Kirk has no connection to LSU. He has never poured into the university. Never helped a student. Never supported a program. He has not even been there. Yet people in power are acting like he deserves a permanent spot on campus. Meanwhile, there are alumni, professors, community leaders, and actual students who have sacrificed and given so much to LSU. They get silence. But Charlie Kirk gets a statue. That does not look like honor. It looks like favoritism.
There is also a huge difference between allowing someone to speak at a school and putting up a statue of them. If someone comes to speak, they come and they leave. That is temporary. A statue is permanent. A statue means we agree with them. A statue means we want future generations to look up to that person.
So what does it say about LSU if a student fifty years from now looks up Charlie Kirk on the internet, and sees everything he stands for connected is to their campus? It will seem like LSU approved it. We should honor people who bring communities together. People who make LSU better. Not someone who divides the very students this university claims to serve.
At the end of the day, a statue should reflect what one values. And if this is who LSU chooses to celebrate, then we have to ask ourselves what that says about the school and who it is really for.
