LIVE from New York: It’s Donald Trump’s … racism?!

NBC recently announced that Donald Trump will host Saturday Night Live next weekend, on November 7.

That’s the same Donald Trump whose campaign rhetoric — rooted in racism, fear-mongering and hate — is demonizing and dehumanizing immigrants and people of color. The same Donald Trump whose platform advocates for the mass deportation of Latino immigrants.

Donald Trump is one of the leading presidential candidates in the Republican field. NBC’s news division should cover him as they would any other front-runner. But NBC and Saturday Night Live (SNL) should not be validating his hateful views by giving him an additional national platform to bolster his image and entertain the American people.

There’s mounting evidence that Donald Trump’s racist demagoguery is resulting in real-world violence and physical and verbal intimidation. Here are just a few examples:

• Earlier this month, at a rally in Virginia, when student immigration activists tried to interrupt Trump, Trump supporters physically attacked them. One supporter was caught on tape swearing and spitting in the face of a demonstrator. Another yelled, “Go back where you came from!” to the students.
• In September, students with the United We Dream movement organized a protest at a Trump rally in Washington D.C. Trump supporters yelled at them, spit at them, and yelled derogatory slurs.
• In August, two brothers from South Boston ambushed a 58-year-old homeless man as he slept outside. They targeted him because he was Hispanic. One of the brothers said he was inspired in part by Trump. In response, Trump said, “I will say that people who are following me are very passionate. They love this country and they want this country to be great again. They are passionate.”
• In August, a Trump supporter at a rally in Alabama said to the New York Times: “Hopefully, [Trump’s] going to sit there and say, ‘When I become elected president, what we’re going to do is we’re going to make the border a vacation spot, it’s going to cost you $25 for a permit, and then you get $50 for every confirmed kill. That’d be one nice thing.”

Rather than denounce Trump’s racist rhetoric, the other Republican candidates are scrambling to match it. And rather than challenging his fear-mongering, the mainstream media covering the presidential race have largely given him a pass.

NBCUniversal, the network that broadcasts Saturday Night Live, cut its ties with Trump’s Miss Universe pageant in June after he called Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists when he announced his candidacy for president. There’s no reason why they should now be legitimizing the same hate by letting him host SNL.

Donald Trump absolutely has a first amendment right to say whatever he wants, no matter how hateful. And the news media should cover him as a leading presidential candidate. But it’s irresponsible and dangerous for NBC to provide Trump with a free national platform to bolster his campaign fueled by bigotry and racism.

That’s why more than 80,000 people have signed our petition telling NBC and Saturday Night Live to cancel Donald Trump’s appearance. You can join us by signing the petition here.

On top of that, more than 1,000 people have also Tweeted directly at @NBC and @NBCSNL with the same demand. If you’re on Twitter, click here to Tweet now.

This isn’t the first time in recent months we’ve fought back against Donald Trump’s racism.

In response to inflammatory remarks made by Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson this fall, more than 50,000 CREDO activists signed a petition urging all Republican presidential candidates to denounce Islamophobia and stop promoting anti-muslim hatred.

And in August, over 50,000 CREDO activists signed a petition in solidarity with Univision anchor Jorge Ramos who was forcibly ejected from a Donald Trump press conference for questioning the Republican presidential candidate about immigration.

Hundreds of thousands of people are standing up to Donald Trump’s racism. It’s time for Saturday Night Live to follow suit.