As you may have heard, aspiring Blusterer in Chief Donald Trump is hosting “Saturday Night Live” in two weeks, and not everybody is looking forward to the spectacle.
In particular, a number of Latino advocacy groups have taken issue with Trump’s hosting gig, given the presidential candidate’s propensity for racist, disparaging marks about Mexican immigrants. A group called the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, composed of 40 Latino civil rights and policy groups, wrote a letter to Lorne Michaels and NBCUniversal head honcho Stephen Burke calling for “SNL” to disinvite Trump.
Arguing that allowing Trump to host the show would “legitimize and validate his anti-Latino comments,” the letter-writers state that they are “appalled that you would enable Trump’s hateful speech for nothing less than a ratings ploy and ask that you rescind the SNL invitation.”
“‘SNL’ has become one of the most highly coveted platforms for candidates looking to connect with the American public,” said Janet Murguía, president of Latino advocacy group the National Council of La Raza, in the Los Angeles Times. “It’s appalling for a show to showcase a man whose campaign has been built on bigotry and demagoguery for the sake of buzz and ratings.”
And protests are coming from all fronts: A Twitter hashtag called #RacismIsntFunny started trending on Twitter on Thursday, while a petition website of the same name has already garnered over 360,000 signatures .
You can see some of the reactions below:
Trump is a joke but racism isn't funny. Tell @NBC to #DumpTrump from SNL: http://t.co/ORZIXwBysl @moveon #racismisntfunny
— John Leguizamo (@JohnLeguizamo) October 17, 2015
How could #snl possibly think having #Trump as host be a good idea? #DumpTrump #racismisntfunny
— Margaret Cho (@margaretcho) October 16, 2015
Trump is a joke but racism isn't funny. Tell @NBC to #DumpTrump from SNL: http://t.co/xrrdYmxCYh @moveon #racismisntfunny
— Al Madrigal (@almadrigal) October 18, 2015
How many Latino cast members does #SNL have?
Answer: 0#racismisntfunny https://t.co/S6DhGktDsA— Jose Armand (@JoseArmand37) October 21, 2015
.@JuanSaaa re SNL: "Had Trump made bigoted remarks abt any other major demographic group, he wld be shunned not featured." #RacismIsntFunny
— America's Voice (@AmericasVoice) October 22, 2015
Trump is a joke but racism isn't funny. Tell @NBC to #DumpTrump from SNL: http://t.co/JjvkeMdt6M @moveon #racismisntfunny
— OOKAY (@Ookay) October 17, 2015
