Controversy has erupted at Oberlin College after second-year politics major Julia Xu openly called for targeted political assassinations in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
“We need to bring back political assassinations,” Xu wrote on social media under the handle @bringbacktheguillotine. She added, “I don’t feel bad and I don’t think that everyone deserves the right to free speech. Some people should be afraid to express their opinion in public.”
Xu, who grew up in Connecticut, serves on the advisory board of Oberlin’s Gender, Sexuality and Attraction Initiatives and is a member of Students for a Free Palestine. Her remarks came during class time in a course on socialism and reform in China, where she admitted her views were influenced by Chairman Mao’s authoritarian policies.
According to Xu, classmates reacted with shock. “The worst thing that was said in that class was that it was a shame that Charlie Kirk died because he was such a huge figure in the right-wing movement and now, who will be left to debate?” she recalled.
After backlash, Xu apologized, claiming, “I do not actually advocate for political assassinations … I do not condone political violence, and my comments were tactless.”
Oberlin College distanced itself from Xu’s remarks. President Carmen Twillie Ambar stated, “Last week, in an open letter, I wrote ‘there is no place for political violence in the America that I love.’ It threatens our sense of safety and well-being and it violates the sanctity of the nation’s civil discourse.”
Her words underscored a broader concern—that violent rhetoric on campuses risks undermining civil dialogue in America.
