This is the best thing I have read about the murder. Thank you for your perspective.
I was told that Kirk said black women were unintelligent. Here, if I am reading this right, he simply said that those four were over-elevated in regards to their intelligence, which may or may not be true, not that all black women are unintelligent. It is interesting to me how things get so skewed in the telling.
I had never heard of Kirk until he was dead, or at least he did not make a big impact on me. I agree that free speech is very important! We've seen speech be thwarted more and more, the topics thwarted change with administrations. All speech must be free, no lines drawn. Maybe we should even allow people to yell "fire!" in theaters. As soon as we start drawing lines, the lines shift according to who, or what, is in power.
As for the supposed MLK statement, I can see how a conservative would think that MLK had some negative effects. MLK certainly has been presented as a near god-like figure, and must have had a human side. Perhaps some of what came from his work is not all that good. Conservatives believe receiving special treatment is debilitating, as I understand their stance on the matter. I can't find, through your link or other browser searches, what he actually said - without access to primary sources, I remain skeptical. Apparently Kirk made a full podcast to explain his reasoning which I can't get to, in some cases it seems to have been scrubbed. I'm not all that swift with finding stuff online!
Your personal story is great. I'm very proud of you! I wonder, though, if the company would have made the change even if you had not used violation of the civil rights act as grounds for the change, but more simply because they could see that you were the right person for the job and you objected. A conservative would like that story better, that laws do not need to be passed to force people to do the right thing. Sometimes laws give rise to their opposites, possibly most times. Maybe that was Kirk's objection to the act.
RE: Freedom of Speech