Stacey Patton, Black leaders recall threats after landing on Turning Point’s ‘Professor Watchlist’

Award-winning journalist, author, and educator Stacey Patton recalls what it was like to end up on Turning Point USA’s list. 

Award-winning journalist, author, and educator Stacey Patton is one of hundreds of academics to experience a campaign of hate towards them after being added to Turning Point USA’s “Professor Watchlist.” 

In the wake of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s death, many academics who were added to the infamous list, including Patton, have been speaking out about their experience. 

“I am on Charlie Kirk’s hit list,” she began in a post on Facebook. 

“His so-called ‘Professor Watchlist,’ run under the umbrella of Turning Point USA, is nothing more than a digital hit list for academics who dare to speak truth to power,” Patton continued. “I landed there in 2024 after writing commentary that inflamed the MAGA faithful. And once my name went up, the harassment machine roared to life.”  

The educator said it led to weeks where her inbox and voicemail were overrun with hate from “mostly white men,” who “spat venom” and derogatory and racial epithets through the phone.

She said “they threatened all manner of violence” and overwhelmed Howard University’s PR lines and the president’s office with calls demanding that she be fired. 

“The flood was so relentless that the head of campus security reached out to offer me an escort, because they feared one of these keyboard soldiers might step out of his basement and come do me harm,” she wrote. “And I am not unique.”

In 2016, Turning Point USA launched its “Professor Watchlist,” an online database of professors the organization believed were pushing a leftist agenda in the classroom. By 2021, when it expanded, nearly doubling in size, it was flagged for overly featuring academics of color. It includes high-profile figures like the Rev. Al Sharpton, Angela Davis, and Cornel West, among notable leaders on the rise. 

“Kirk’s Watchlist has terrorized legions of professors across this country. Women, Black faculty, queer scholars, basically anyone who challenged white supremacy, gun culture, or Christian nationalism, suddenly found themselves targets of coordinated abuse,” Patton continued writing in her post. “Some received death threats. Some had their jobs threatened. Some left academia entirely. Kirk sent the loud message to us: speak the truth and we will unleash the mob!” 

Another who had run-ins with Kirk and was also added to that list in 2018 is attorney, activist, and reality TV star Preston Metchum.

“Charlie Kirk is the reason I was doxxed in 2018,” he wrote in a post on Instagram. “He and Turning Point USA put me on “Professor Watchlist” for “progressive” views,” he continued. “He’s the reason for me previously receiving death threats. He’s the reason the police had to call me and ask if I needed an escort to class when I taught at Georgetown University Law Center. If you are part of a marginalized community, he did not care about you; he would not mourn for you; and he very much believed you didn’t deserve equal treatment.”

He added, “For those of us who had personal experience with him—and received his direct attacks—do NOT tell us how to feel. He died in the world he wanted. You’ll never understand.”

In her post, Patton described the culture of violence Kirk “built,” how he normalized, curated, monetized, and “sicced it on anyone” who dared to speak out against his movement.  

“And now, in the wake of his shooting, there’s all this national outpouring of mourning, moments of silence, yellow prayer hands, and tributes painting him as a civil debater. But the truth is that Kirk and his foot soldiers spent years terrorizing educators, trying to silence us with harassment and fear,” she continued. “And now the same violence he unleashed on others has come full circle.”