Karen Attiah | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Attiah in 2017 | |
| Born | (1986-08-12)August 12, 1986 (age 39) Texas, U.S. |
| Education | Northwestern University (BA) Columbia University (MIA) |
| Occupations | Columnist, editor |
Karen Attiah (born August 12, 1986) is an American writer, commentator, and editor, formerly employed byThe Washington Post. Hired in 2014, she was the founding editor in 2016 for its Global Opinions section, and was elevated to Opinions columnist in 2021 before being fired by thePost in 2025. According to Attiah, she was fired in response to her social media comments referencingCharlie Kirk in the aftermath ofhis assassination.
Attiah had recruited Saudi writerJamal Khashoggi for thePost's Global Opinions section, and her journalistic responses after he went missing on October 2, 2018, after entering the Saudi embassy inIstanbul, led to her to be named 2019 Journalist of the Year by theNational Association of Black Journalists. She and her colleagueDavid Ignatius also received the 2019George Polk Award in Journalism for their work surroundingKhashoggi's assassination.
Attiah was born in northeastern Texas on August 12, 1986, to aNigerian-Ghanaian mother andGhanaian father.[1][a] Her father was apulmonologist.[2][b] After graduating with a bachelor's degree incommunication studies with aminor inAfrican studies fromNorthwestern University, Attiah won aFulbright Scholarship to study inAccra, Ghana. In 2012, she earned a master's degree in international affairs fromColumbia University'sSchool of International and Public Affairs.[1][3]
After graduate school, Attiah became a media consultant for theWorld Bank's Africa program and worked as a freelance reporter for theAssociated Press while based inCuraçao. She was hired byThe Washington Post in 2014.[4] In 2016, she became the founding editor for thePost's Global Opinions section and was promoted to the role of Opinions columnist in 2021.[4] Her writing at thePost focused on race, gender, culture, human rights, and international affairs.[1][5] She also hostedTL;DR, aPost video series focusing on identity and global issues, which won theNational Association of Black Journalists' Salute to Excellence Award for digital commentary in 2018.[6][7]
Attiah became the focus of international attention in October 2018 when Saudi writerJamal Khashoggi, a columnist she had recruited forThe Washington Post's Global Opinions section, went missing on October 2 after entering the Saudi embassy inIstanbul.[8] In an interview inMarie Claire, Attiah said herWhatsApp was suddenly flooded with "Jamal's missing" messages after his disappearance, and she "started to fear the worst".[9] On October 5,Washington Post Global Opinions let Khashoggi's usual column space in its print edition remain blank.[10] She was interviewed by major news outlets as the primary contact for Khashoggi's last published opinion,[11] and she began writing about his death and advocating for its investigation.[12] Attiah later turned this work into a book about Khashoggi calledSay Your Word, Then Leave,[3] which remains unreleased.[13]
Outside of her work at theThe Washington Post, in March 2024, Attiah became anadjunct professor at her alma mater, Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. In 2025, Columbia canceled her course "Race, Media, and International Affairs 101". Attiah attributed the decision to Columbia "pre-emptively cav[ing] to pressure", citing it alongside their placement of the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department under receivership afterdemands from the Trump administration.[14] Attiah instead hosted the course online, calling it Resistance Summer School. Attiah said the course's 500 seats were filled within 48 hours of her announcement, and more than 3,000 people remained on the waitlist.[15]
Attiah announced that she had been fired byThe Washington Post in a newsletter post on September 15, 2025.[16][c] According to the official termination letter Attiah received from thePost via email, her "public comments regarding the death of Charlie Kirk violate The Post's social media policies" and constituted "gross misconduct."
The termination letter specifically quotes two posts on the social media platformBluesky in which she wrote, "Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is...not the same as violence" and "Part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence."[17]
Attiah's only recent direct social media reference to Kirk was a Bluesky post paraphrasing Kirk's comments from 2023 thatSheila Jackson Lee,Michelle Obama,Ketanji Brown Jackson, andJoy Reid "do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously", and that they "had to go steal a white person's slot to go be taken somewhat seriously".[18][19][20] Some have since challenged the phrasing of her remarks, claiming she intentionally suggested he was referring to all Black women when he had been referring specifically to the aforementioned four prominent Black female figures.[21][22]
Attiah's statements regarding her firing were reported by a wide variety of news organizations. According to thePoynter Institute, "it did not appear that it was that post, or any one specific post, that led to her firing."[23]The New York Times noted that her posts did not celebrate Kirk's killing.[24]The Independent andThe Guardian also noted that Attiah's job may have already been in danger due to confrontations withPost opinion editorAdam O'Neal, who had reportedly offered buyouts to columnists whose work was not aligned with the opinion section'sconservative shift announced in 2025.[18][19] Attiah was thePost's last remaining Black full-time opinion columnist prior to her termination[18][25][26]
In her newsletter Attiah wrote, "As a columnist, I used my voice to defend freedom and democracy, challenge power and reflect on culture and politics with honesty and conviction. Now, I am the one being silenced—for doing my job."[19] According to Attiah, thePost failed to initiate a conversation about her conduct before the decision to fire her via email.[27]
The Washington Post Guild, the newspaper's editorial employee union, condemned her firing.[28] Following her termination Attiah has since filed a grievance with thePost, through thePost's labor union, arguing that her social media comments were well-supported within her purview as an opinion writer and permissible under the company's social media policy and labor agreement.[29]The Washington Post declined to comment on her firing, directing reporters instead to their employee social media use standards.[16][18][19]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)Editor's note: Jamal Khashoggi is a Saudi journalist and author, and a columnist for Washington Post Global Opinions. Khashoggi's words should appear in the space above, but he has not been heard from since he entered a Saudi consulate in Istanbul for a routine consular matter on Tuesday afternoon.
No, that's not a precise quote: Attacking affirmative action, Kirk slammed by name four prominent liberal Black women . On his podcast, he specifically criticized Rep. Shirley Jackson Lee, D-Texas, TV host Joy Reid, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and attorney and former First Lady Michelle Obama.
She wrote, partially quoting Kirk from a 2023 episode of his show: 'Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person's spot.' That is not an exact quote. Attiah's critics pointed out that Kirk had been speaking specifically about liberal Black women such as Michelle Obama and former Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee—who have said that affirmative action gave them an opportunity to prove themselves—but was not addressing all 'Black women,' and never said as such.
The Hoover Institution held a discussion on US-Saudi relations as the investigation into the disappearance of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi continued. Speakers in the first panel talked about implications for democracy and human rights. In the second panel, speakers focused on Saudi Arabia and US-Saudi relations.
| International | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
