"Trump is a joke but racism isn't funny": Fans urge "SNL" to dump Donald Trump as host

Latino advocacy groups in particular are pushing back against the GOP candidate hosting in November

Published October 27, 2015 8:04PM (EDT)

  (AP/Julie Jacobson)
(AP/Julie Jacobson)

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:


By Anna Silman

MORE FROM Anna Silman


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Donald Trump Saturday Night Live Snl