This weekend presidential candidate Donald Trump claimed that a Black Lives Matter activists deserved to be assaulted by the other attendees at his rally and tweeted a graphic – sourced to a neo-Nazi – with false crime statistics from a made-up organization falsely accusing Black Americans of causing most murders. This has been part of a growing number of racially charged incidents that Trump has been involved in for years – gaining greater visibility since launching his Presidential campaign.
Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange.org issued the following statement:
“Over the weekend Donald Trump published a grossly inaccurate image on his Twitter account, originally posted by a neo-Nazi, with made-up crime statistics meant to stoke the flames of violence, anger, intolerance and fear in the hearts and minds of his constituents.[1]The fact that the leading candidate for the Republican party’s nomination to President of the United States reads, shares and supports the views of neo-Nazi’ should signal a deafening alarm to all Americans of good faith. Make no mistake; anyone continuing to do business with Donald Trump – media, government and corporations – is making a choice to align with his white supremacist rhetoric and the violent actions and consequences that ensue.
ColorOfChange and our members are calling on all of Trump’s business partners, from the New York City government to the companies paying Trump speaker fees, to immediately discontinue their relationships with Donald Trump.
From brutal verbal assaults on people of color to endorsing physical violence and intimidation of peaceful protestors, Donald Trump continues to contribute to a hostile cultural and media climate for people of color in this country. Hate crimes, white terrorist attacks, and daily violence against Black Americans, Muslim, Arab and South Asian Americans as well as Latinos and other immigrants are encouraged by the hateful and false narratives being spread by Donald Trump and those that profit from his platform.
Since 9/11, nearly twice as many people have been killed by homegrown antigovernment terrorists and white supremacists, than jihadists. Despite signs that an ailing economy and the election of a Black president would fuel a reactionary response from white supremacist groups, efforts by government agencies to conduct research on right-wing extremism have run into resistance and criticism from Republicans.”
[1] “KING: Donald Trump’s blatant, unapologetic racism breeds a dangerous hysteria” NY Daily News, Nov 23, 2015