Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB) Lecturer Cody Roberts became the target of online backlash after posting commentary on the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
His Instagram story was reposted by a conservative social media account with over 4 million followers, leading to doxxing, criticism and thousands of comments calling for him to be removed from CSUMB faculty.
In a related incident, faculty and staff in CSUMB’s Humanities and Communication (HCOM) program received a threatening email, increasing fear and concern on campus regarding the incident and prompting increased safety measures.
The email begins by noting it was “in regards to the comments of one of your faculty, Cody Roberts.” Within the eleven paragraphs of the email, the writer calls for Roberts to be fired and says CSUMB professors are “unwittingly contributing to the destruction of a culture.”
“No amount of obfuscation and distancing can detract from the simple fact that you are responsible for a murder. It’s literally just you,” the email said, later concluding, “It’s difficult to assess your behavior and avoid the conclusion that you want violence. You want civil war. If so, let’s go.”
Roberts’ Instagram story reacting to Kirk’s assassination said, “I cannot muster up much sympathy, truly. People are going to argue: ‘He has a family, he has a wife and kids.’ What about all the kids, the many broken families from the over 258 school shootings 2020-present?” It was screenshot and reposted by social media account Libs of TikTok.
Although Roberts previously agreed to answer questions from the Lutrinae, he changed his mind, deciding to “allot his energy toward the campus community” and his more at-risk students.
In an email regarding the situation, he stated his decision comes after “a number of disheartening conversations this past week, and escalations in the rhetoric being used towards academics—any further spotlight would be damning to my ultimate purpose here at the university; to teach and guide students through inquiry, discovery and expression.”
However, his resolve did not come lightly. “Morally, I feel it is right to tell this story, and to have students do it. I feel that this isn’t about me personally—it’s about how democratic discourse is undermined when intimidation replaces dialogue. Though at this point I cannot risk the danger of losing what I hold closest, which starts at my ability to protect and support disenfranchised and/or marginalized students,” Roberts said.
“My work circumvents multicultural, multimodal, queer and expressive reading and writing. Which I have curated to showcase and benefit the wide array of students we serve, and I fear losing that space to allow students to flourish and recognize themselves and their power in writing, theory, research and critical thought.”
Commenters also took to CSUMB’s social media posts, mainly on X and Facebook, leaving comments about Roberts’ actions. One commenter under the X post said, “cody roberts mocking a political assassination? if true, that’s beyond reckless. wondering if CSUMB stands for decency or this kind of hate.” Under a CSUMB Facebook post celebrating Patriot Day, commenters called on the university to “Fire Cody” and said he “mock[ed] the death” of Kirk.
“I do want to clarify that my initial commentary, which landed me here, was in response to Kirk saying, ‘I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other god-given rights. That is a prudent deal,’” Roberts said.
“This context of my commentary was never showcased in the ‘screenshot’ produced by Libs of TikTok,” he said.
Addressing the email
HCOM Professor Estella Porras received the email before going to class. She figured the message was in response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk or the backlash toward Roberts. “I’m seeing all these comments, and then I’m seeing the email and then I’m going to class. It was unsettling,” Porras said.
“It was unpleasant and [felt] tense because I’m going to class and I don’t know if the students have also received these emails, if they are also feeling scared about voicing their opinions,” she said. “If we’re talking about media communication and it has to do with democracy and freedom of information, all of these topics are pretty much connected to this. It’s complicated.”
The annual HCOM Mixer for students and faculty was planned to happen just hours after the email was sent out. Porras, one of the organizers for the event, didn’t know if the event was going to be canceled because of the potential threat to the HCOM faculty.
After communication between the College of Art, Humanities and Social Science Dean, James Hussar, Dean of Student Affairs Rueben Rodriguez and the University Police Department, the mixer was restricted to HCOM students and faculty, with others turned away as a safety precaution.
“Any time I am presented with something like this, anything troubling or that causes me concern, the priority is making sure that we are ascertaining safety,” said Hussar.
Porras’ class subjects typically cover journalism and communication, where politics, free speech and communication theory are regularly discussed. She isn’t scared to continue these conversations after recent events.
“In class, I don’t feel scared or anything because I know that I’m inviting the students to think of ways to reconnect. Of course, some dialogues can be difficult, but I think that we’re also modeling ways to talk about things that can be difficult,” Porras said.
“I think that the humanities and communication program is so vital at this moment. What I’m trying to do in my classes is emphasize the challenge now, how to center that human connection – not they or us but how we can connect and understand each other’s perspectives better.”
Hussar said the administration is still learning how to respond to fast-moving situations like this one. “I learned through the course of these conversations that other folks had been alerted to this before I was alerted to it, because different messages were coming from different parties to different people,” he said. “The way that I can do my best to provide a safe environment is by making sure I am communicating effectively.”
Roberts says, “Professors, students and citizens should not be intimidated into silence. We need to support each other when these campaigns emerge.”