Columnist Karen Attiah filed a legal grievance against The Washington Post on Wednesday after she was fired for her false accusations against Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
The Post fired Attiah in mid-September for falsely accusing Kirk of stating that “black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously.” After lamenting her firing as a “hasty overreach,” the columnist’s grievance claims that the Post violated the company’s labor policy by not allowing her to supposedly speak “truthfully and forcefully about matters of vital public concern,” The New York Times reported.
“Yes I will be fighting back against the unjust firing by @washingtonpost.com. I have filed a grievance and will be represented by none other than the amazing @katiephang.bsky.social and an incredible legal team. Journalistic freedom is a bedrock of a healthy society and is worth battling for,” Attiah wrote on BlueSky, a left-wing social media platform.
Attiah submitted a four-page letter to the Post’s head of human resources seeking to recover damages over her firing, the Times reported. The Post informed the columnist in a termination letter that her remarks about Kirk were “unacceptable,” constituted “gross misconduct” and endangered the safety of colleagues.
The Post’s policies and standards require employees to use social media responsibly and civilly, and to treat people with respect, according to The Times.
The Post did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The columnist made the accusations against Kirk on Sept. 10, the day that Kirk was assassinated. While she later acknowledged that Kirk specifically referred to fired MSNBC host Joy Reid, former first lady Michelle Obama and others for crediting affirmative action for their careers, she doubled down on her baseless claims that Kirk was a racist.
“Hey everyone, in the heat of things, I originally saw this quote in a piece in the Nation, and their quote has since been updated to specify that it was specific to Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, etc. But Kirk’s clearly anti-black statements speak for themselves,” Attiah wrote in a BlueSky post on Sept. 18, citing The Guardian.
After her firing, Attiah complained in a Substack post that black people like herself were being silenced while the U.S. mourned another white man, such as Kirk. She further wrote that the reaction to Kirk’s death is another example of society “giving compassion for white men who commit and espouse political violence.”
“I pointed to the familiar pattern of America shrugging off gun deaths, and giving compassion for white men who commit and espouse political violence. This cycle has been documented for years. Nothing I said was new or false or disparaging— it is descriptive, and supported by data,” Attiah wrote.
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