At Oberlin College, a student openly praised the assassination of Charlie Kirk and urged more political killings, citing lessons from Chairman Mao, the dictator who killed more than 50 million of his own people.
Julia Xu, whose handle on social media is @bringbacktheguillotine, said in a post on social media, "We need to bring back political assassinations.”
“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.”
BREAKING - The student who said “we need to bring back political assassinations” when asked about Charlie Kirk’s death has been identified as Julia Xu of Oberlin University, who quickly deleted and privated all social media accounts, too bad we have her school’s safety number. pic.twitter.com/iTdrPNZBZT
— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) September 16, 2025
According to an online college blog that the NY Post viewed and has since been taken down. Xu grew up in Connecticut and is majoring in politics and international affairs. She is on the advisory board of the Gender, Sexuality and Attraction Initiative, a campus group that supports queer, trans, and women’s programming at Oberlin College. Her pronouns are they/them, and she happens to be a member of Students for a Free Palestine.
Xu made the comments during her “Revolution, Socialism and Reform in China” class when she was allotted five minutes to describe a "hot take." She explained that her opinion was informed by none other than Chairman Mao Zedong, whom she then went on to praise. The NY Post seems to think her comments were "misguided" or "inadvertent," I'm not so sure.
She specifically said that Mao had decided “people deserve free speech, but there should not be free speech for reactionaries and imperialists and, like capitalists … because that would reverse the progress made [by the revolution].”
“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 continued. “Now there’s no one left to have productive conversations with … Of course, everyone saying this, they were all male students. There were four or five male students … it just shows that white men will always empathize with the people who look like them.”
The Post reached out for comment, and she quickly backtracked. She said she is "deeply remorseful" and does "not actually advocate for political assassinations … I did not receive agreement from my professor or other students with the opinions I expressed in class, and it was wrong to imply this in my post. I do not condone political violence, and my comments were tactless.”
The university also commented on her "hot take," with President Carmen Twillie Ambar saying, "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."
“I want to emphasize that the views expressed in the student’s post do not reflect those of the faculty member who teaches the class referenced. Nor does the student’s post reflect the views of Oberlin College.”