Comments from Kirk on race and crime prompted an angry liberal backlash on numerous occasions. In 2020, he called George Floyd, a black man whose murder at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer sparked nationwide protests, a "scumbag".
When discussing crime on his podcast in 2023, he said "prowling blacks go around for fun to go target white people". Referring to his opposition to affirmative action and hiring practices to boost diversity, he said on the same podcast a year later: "If I see a black pilot, I'm going to be like, boy, I hope he's qualified."
When a student accused him of racism in one recent campus debate, Kirk replied: "What have I ever said that's racist? What have I ever said that's hateful? He can't say anything I've ever said that's racist, because I've never said anything that's racist."
Kirk would often cite his Christian faith when explaining his positions on issues including Islam, gender and abortion.
"The West is the best because of Christianity. We must seek Christ first, and our national and cultural resurgence will naturally follow. For America to be great, we must remain majority Christian," he said.
He was also accused of antisemitism in 2023, when he said on his podcast that "Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them". He added: "It is true that some of the largest financiers of left-wing, anti-white causes have been Jewish Americans."