WASHINGTON, D.C. – Kristen Clarke, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, issued the following statement today ahead of this weekend’s white-supremacist commemorating last year’s Charlottesville Unite the Right rally to take place in Lafayette Square across from the White House:
“The President’s statement today pours salt into the open wounds of those still reeling from last year’s Charlottesville tragedy. In referring to ‘all types of racism’, we know the President is once again suggesting a false equivalency between Jason Kessler and those firmly opposed to white supremacy. Once again, the President has refused to squarely and unequivocally condemn the neo-Nazis, the Alt-Right, and the violence that goes along with them.”
“The Unite the Right Rally is not about free speech; this is about a group that has a track record of inciting racial violence in our country. The white supremacy that we will see on display inside our nation’s capital is the symptom of the political environment that we are living through today, one fueled by hateful rhetoric and policies that convey animus towards African Americans, Muslims, LGBT groups and other minority communities.”
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a Communities Against Hate partner, leads the Stop Hate Project. The Stop Hate Project works to strengthen the capacity of community leaders, local government, law enforcement, and organizations around the country to combat hate by connecting these groups with legal and social services resources and creating new ones in response to identified needs.
The Project’s resource and reporting hotline for hate incidents, 1-844-9-NO-HATE (1-844-966-4283), connects people and organizations combating hate with the resources and support they need.
