MALDEF

MALDEF STATEMENT ON VIOLENT WHITE NATIONALIST PROTESTS IN CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.


August 12, 2017


Los Angeles, CA - Please attribute the following statement on the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. and the Trump administration's response to the violence to Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund):

"MALDEF joins in condemning the white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Va. and the violence that the protests engendered. Our condolences go out to the family of the murder victim and our solidarity and moral support to the injured.

MALDEF also calls upon Donald Trump to cease his rhetorical gamesmanship and to recognize and acknowledge publicly that there is no equivalency, moral or otherwise, between those who spout white nationalist ideology and those who protest it. The repetition of 'on many sides' in a self-evident attempt to introduce some indeterminacy into what happened in Charlottesville is simply irresponsible pandering unbefitting the White House. MALDEF calls upon the White House to reject ideologies of white supremacy, white nationalism, and alt-right rhetoric; to remove the prominent adherents of such ideologies from positions of authority in the Administration, and to forthrightly explain the fallacy that lies in the paranoia of those who see persecution of whites in a society where white males remain dramatically overrepresented in positions of leadership in virtually all sectors.

'On many sides' will live in infamy if our elected officials, starting with the White House, do not put aside pandering in favor of true and just leadership."



Founded in 1968, MALDEF is the nation's leading Latino legal civil rights organization. Often described as the "Latino Legal Voice for Civil Rights in America" MALDEF promotes social change through advocacy, communications, community education, and litigation in the areas of education, employment, immigrant rights, and political access. For more information on MALDEF, please visit: www.maldef.org.

Copyright 2009 MALDEF — Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund