Conservative activist Charlie Kirk spoke at Clemson Monday night on a diverse range of topics during his Exposing Critical Racism tour. The Tiger fact-checked a selection of his statements and remarks below, providing context and additional information as needed.
Kirk: “At over 75 schools across the country, they have black-only dorm rooms … They have black-only graduation ceremonies at Columbia University.”
Facts: No educational facility in the United States can legally segregate based on race following Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. The black-only dorms that Kirk is describing are residential communities, comparable to Clemson University’s Living Learning Communities, in which students of any identity can opt-in to live with other students of those self-reported identities.
Kirk directly mentions Western Washington University, which recently established a “Black Affinity Housing” program this fall. However, Western’s program explicitly does not discriminate based on race. “The community welcomes all residents who are interested in exploring and celebrating the diversity of Black and African American people and culture, with historical and contemporary contexts,” writes the university on its program page.
Similarly, black-only graduation ceremonies would likely violate the Brown decision. Columbia University recently announced several additional graduation ceremonies for those who identify with a multicultural community. The ceremonies are in addition to, but not in replace of, the main graduation ceremony. “All students are invited to participate in these celebrations,” writes Columbia of its seven unique ceremonies.
Kirk: “In Philadelphia, an illegal alien was on the subway with a woman for 40 minutes and 25 train stops. He raped the woman and people filmed and did nothing. He stopped at his own convenience and walked off the train.”
Facts: While the investigation is still on-going after the alleged incident occurred on Oct. 13, a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) police officer arrested the suspect within three minutes of a 911 call coming in that a man was undressing on the train. Fiston Ngoy, 35, was then taken into custody and charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and related offenses, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. 
At an initial press conference, SEPTA Transit Police Chief Thomas Nestel III told reporters that footage did show bystanders pointing their phones toward the incident and that no one called 911, other than an off-duty SEPTA employee. However, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer recently pushed back against that narrative.
“The picture that people have gotten, that this crowd of people sitting there were filming and not doing anything, isn’t true,” Stollsteimer said.
Additionally, Ngoy travelled to the United States on a student visa in 2012 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and stayed in the country after his visa expired. After a prior conviction in 2017 for misdemeanor sexual abuse, the Board of Immigrations Appeals found that the offense was not a “serious crime” and did not warrant deportation, according to The Inquirer.
Kirk: “In the 1980s, you used to be able to support a family of four on 36 weeks of labor a year. Now it takes 53 weeks of labor a year to support a family of four.”
Facts: Kirk’s calculations check out, but it is important to add context to what they mean. His term to “support a family of four” is in reference to the federal poverty guidelines, which listed the poverty line for a family of four in 1980 at $8,414 with a federal minimum wage of $3.10 per hour. Assuming one person in the family works for ten hours a day, it would take roughly 39 weeks (38.77) to cross the line.
Today, the poverty line for a family of four is $26,496 with a federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Continuing to assume that one person in the family works for ten hours a day, it would take roughly 52 weeks (52.21) to get above the legal threshold of poverty.
The Census Bureau updates the poverty line based on inflation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), a measure of the prices for typical goods and services.
Kirk: “United Airlines has come out and they have said they are going to be hiring pilots based primarily on the color of someone’s skin.”
Facts: It is illegal to discriminate against applicants or employees because of their race, including the advertisement of such, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Kirk’s claim is in reference to an announcement that United Airlines released in April, explaining the airline’s plan to have 50% of its pilot-training class be women or people of color.
United Airlines is the only major U.S. airline to own a flight school, according to Reuters. United’s plan is to diversify its flight school’s population by offering scholarships from multicultural organizations, including the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals and the Professional Asian Pilots Association. The airline itself is not hiring a certain quota of pilots based upon gender or race.
“Today, United has one of the most diverse pilot populations of any U.S. carrier with nearly 20% of our pilot group made up of women and people of color,” writes United Aviate Academy, the flight school owned by United. “We are working toward raising that number even higher by partnering with diversity-led organizations and continuing to remove gender and racial barriers.”