\n<\/p>\n
The brief acknowledgment of Kirk\u2019s painful situation was a moment of uncomfortable grief in a weekend full of them. Throughout AmericaFest, which ran from Thursday to Sunday, Turning Point USA tried to memorialize its founder as a newly minted Christian martyr. Inside the Phoenix Convention Center, the organization set up a tent identical to the one under which Charlie was shot at Utah Valley University; the display stayed up all weekend, functioning as a spot where fans could pay homage\u2014and take selfies.<\/p>\n
During the event, Kirk also sat in front of a TPUSA tour bus to imitate the \u201cProve Me Wrong\u201d debates for which her husband often went viral\u2014though MS Now\u2019s Brandy Zadrozny<\/strong> noted<\/a> that no one came to challenge her. Instead, admirers asked kind questions. \u201cErika\u2019s answers, which sometimes rambled,\u201d Zadrozny wrote, \u201cincluded stories about her husband and insights into biohacking, divine timing, vitamin C, the dangers of Botox, her two small children, and her grief, which felt heavy in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n None of these issues came up when Kirk spoke to Minaj. Instead, the focus was on the rapper and her opinions about culture. At one point, Minaj began to speak about representation and making all people feel beautiful\u2014common concepts in the more diversity-friendly 2010s, when Minaj first got famous. Then she shifted gears, blaming the media for \u201cmaking young Black children feel proud of themselves,\u201d but \u201cat the same time telling other children not to be proud of themselves.\u201d She added, \u201cNo, that\u2019s not how it works. I don\u2019t need someone with blond hair and blue eyes to downplay their beauty, because I know my beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n It was an awkward moment, but at least one person in the audience was paying attention. On Monday morning, Vance\u2014who made headlines<\/a> of his own with an AmericaFest speech in which he crowed that \u201cin the United States of America, you don\u2019t have to apologize for being white anymore\u201d\u2014went on social media to praise Minaj\u2019s similar message.<\/p>\n \u201cNicki Minaj said something at Amfest that was really profound,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m paraphrasing, but she said, \u2018just because I want little black girls to think they\u2019re beautiful doesn\u2019t mean I need to put down little girls with blonde hair and blue eyes.\u2019 We all got wrapped up over the last few years in zero sum thinking. This was because the people who think they rule the world pit us against one another.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n