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The Washington Post has been ordered to reinstate Black journalist Karen Attiah with back pay, nearly a year after the newspaper fired her over social media posts she made following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The private arbitrator ordered the Post to reinstate Attiah and provide her with back pay, according to The New York Times.
The Post fired Attiah in September 2025 over two Bluesky posts she made in response to Kirk’s death.
In one, Attiah criticized what she called “performative mourning” for a white man who had espoused violence. In another, she argued that America’s response to violence often involves “care, empty goodness and absolution for white men,” according to her termination letter, as reported by Business Insider.
In its termination letter, The Post said Attiah’s posts damaged the newspaper’s credibility and violated its expectations for employees’ conduct on social media, according to The New York Times. Attiah disputed the newspaper’s reasoning and challenged her termination through arbitration, maintaining that the posts were part of her work as an opinion journalist.
Attiah wrote on her Substack following the termination that she believed she was fired for speaking out about political violence, racial double standards and America’s relationship with guns. She argued that the case was ultimately about journalists being able to comment on matters of public concern without fear of censorship or retaliation.
The ruling found that the Post did not have “good and sufficient cause” to terminate Attiah and had violated its labor agreement, according to Reuters.
“This decision confirms what we’ve said from the start: I was doing my job as an opinion journalist, and doing that job is not misconduct,” Attiah said following the ruling, according to Reuters.
Attiah was the Post’s last Black full-time opinion columnist when she was fired, according to The New York Times.
The Post has said it respects the arbitration process. Attiah has indicated she is willing to return to the newspaper.
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