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For Immediate Release August 26, 2020 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org When the NBA favors one team or a referee makes a bad call, fans are outraged because sports only work if everyone is held to the same rules. So why is the NBA not crying “foul” on a black player who screamed a racially inappropriate term at a white player during a game? Racism is racism regardless of the participants. New Tolerance Campaign is mobilizing activists to call on NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to play by his own rules and address this instance of racism as the NBA has addressed others in the past. During the Aug 21 Los Angeles Clippers v. Dallas Mavericks game, Montrezl Harrell called Luka Doncic a “bitch ass white boy.” After some internet backlash, Harrell apologized to Doncic, but the NBA stayed mum, leading many, including the hosts of TNT’s Inside the NBA and rising sports journalist Gary Sheffield, Jr. to condemn the League’s hypocrisy. The NBA has recently gone all-in on racial justice. Last year, the league enacted a zero-tolerance policy for fans who shout racial slurs at players. They have also encouraged players to include certain league-approved social justice slogans on their jerseys such as “I can’t breathe” and “Justice Now” (“Free Hong Kong” is noticeably absent from the list). When the altercation occurred, Harrell’s jersey asked “How Many More.” Doncic had “Equality” printed over his number. It’s no secret that players taunt each other with profane insults during the heat of the game, but as many have observed, if the roles were reversed, the NBA would act publicly in a strong manner. The league would have likely imposed a fine or suspension, as they have on players, owners, and fans in the past. To quote another NBA-approved jersey slogan: Enough! With just a few clicks, activists can send a message to Commissioner Silver urging him to take immediate disciplinary action and show that his league actually cares about improving race relations in America, not just co-opting slogans to sell more merch.

College cancel culture has a history of shutting down controversial speakers, but Tulane University’s student government is taking things to a new extreme. Students threw a fit over a white anti-racism speaker who focuses on grappling with the racist atrocities in his family’s past, forcing the university to postpone the event. New Tolerance Campaign is mobilizing its activists to send a message to Tulane’s student government: you’re failing the students who elected you. White author Edward Ball’s Life of a Klansman: A Family History of White Supremacy delves into the mind and times of his KKK-member great-great-grandfather and explores the atrocities this ancestor commits and the impact his actions had on the victims. The book was published on August 4th, and Ball was set to have a virtual discussion about it with a Tulane assistant professor of African American Studies on August 6th. When the university posted an announcement of the event on Instagram, students erupted, posting hundreds of comments on the now-deleted post demanding the event be canceled and that those responsible apologize.  The Student Government led the charge, sending a message to event organizers that deemed the event “not only offensive and inappropriate” and said that it “undermines the efforts and experiences of Black people at Tulane and in our country” and that “an apology is the first step in undoing the harm you have caused…but is no way the last.” The university has since postponed the event and are reworking it to include more BIPOC participants, an action deemed insufficient by students who are demanding that Ball never be allowed to speak on their campus. Make no mistake, mainstream media has championed the book. The New York Times praised it as “a haunting tapestry of interwoven stories that inform us not just about our past but about the resentment-bred demons that are all too present in our society today” while NPR called it “resonant and important.” The New Republic wrote that Ball “builds a psychological portrait of white supremacy, which then radiates outward and across time, to explain the motives and historical background behind racist violence.” The book’s Amazon description even notes that to offer a non-white view of the KKK, Ball “seeks out descendants of African Americans who were once victimized by ‘our Klansman’ and his comrades, and shares their stories.” The book has also been praised by prominent anti-racism scholar Abram X. Kendi. The response from Tulane’s student government flies in the face of both logic and America’s discussion on racism which demands that the country confront its racist past. In Life of a Klansman, Ball does exactly that. Given the concern of Tulane’s elected student leaders that racism be confronted, they should be encouraging their fellow students to attend the virtual event with Ball rather than shut it down.  With just a few clicks, NTC advocates can sign a petition that will be sent to the Student Government President encouraging Tulane’s student leaders to reverse their illogical and harmful opposition to confronting racism. If they truly seek a more tolerant, anti-racist society, they’re going about it exactly the wrong way.

In mid-July, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) cut Air Force vet Jay Lorenzen from the speaker line-up for an annual secular JAG training after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) complained about his religious affiliation. New Tolerance Campaign is mobilizing its activists to sign a petition calling on the Marine Corps to cease discrimination against people of any religion and add Lorenzen back into their speaker rotation for future events. Lorenzen was scheduled to give three talks on leadership at the training event, but MRFF claimed that he was unfit to give these talks because he had given similarly titled talks on his own time to religious groups that included a Christian slant. They also pointed to his involvement in Campus Crusade for Christ’s (Cru) Military Ministry, which encourages soldiers to view themselves as “missionaries” during their time in the military.  MRFF bragged that Lorenzen was removed from the training a mere 64 minutes after they issued their complaint.  The USMC confirmed only that he had been removed because “some of the participating Marines raised concerns.” There was no evidence or indication provided by MRFF or the Marine Corps that Lorenzen was planning to include religion in these trainings. It appears he was cut because of his private views and affiliation with religious groups, both unacceptable reasons for dismissal because they indicate religious discrimination.   Americans enjoy freedom of association, religion, and speech, all of which peacefully coexist within the separation of church and state. In addition to being discriminatory, surely Lorenzen is not the only speaker engaged by the military who has an active private religious life. This duplicity signals horribly intolerant behavior by the Marine Corps, an organization that has long prided itself on welcoming the most qualified people into its ranks. If his leadership and teaching skills were good enough for the Marine Corps to hire him the first time, and they have not been called into question since, and he should be added back into their speaker rotation.

For Immediate Release July 15, 2020 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org Nick Cannon, former husband of Mariah Carey who said “men don’t subscribe to monogamy because they feel like it’s not natural in their DNA,” is once again in the news, this time exhibiting another startling display of ignorance. During an episode of Cannon’s Class, his podcast that he calls “specifically…academic,” Cannon expressed a dizzying array of ignorant and backwards views about the Jewish people and their history. Rather than apologize for his anti-Semitism, he tried to cover it up. New Tolerance Campaign is rallying its activists to unmask his hate and force him to learn why he is wrong so he does not continue to radicalize his fans with hate. In the show, Cannon said that black people are the true chosen people of Israel and therefore, as the original Semites, cannot be anti-Semitic. In the course of the discussion, Cannon referred to “the honorable Louis Farrakhan” and praised his work several times. Farrakhan is the leader of Nation of Islam, which is classified as an anti-Semitic group by both the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Southern Poverty Law Center. Further, Cannon expressed strong opinions that Jews have been given too much power. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told Jewish Insider that “anyone seeking a Ph.D in Jew-hatred should watch this ‘interview.’” ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted that it was “Truly disturbing that @NickCannon would use his platform to perpetuate false anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and lift up the vehemently anti-Semitic Louis Farrakhan.” The American Jewish Committee tweeted “.@NickCannon spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about ‘Rothschilds’ and ‘Zionists’ to millions of his followers is abhorrent and unacceptable. His message of hate has no place in our society and should be condemned by all people of good conscience.” Following the blowback, Cannon issued a series of Tweets that sought to highlight the historical partnership between the black and Jewish communities, though he did not walk back any of his fallacious comments. As part of his response, Cannon stated that “I encourage more healthy dialogue and welcome any experts, clergy, or spokespersons to any of my platforms to hold me accountable and correct me in any statement that I’ve made that has been projected as negative.” Well, Nick, the time is now. Let’s get you educated. We nominate the Anti-Defamation League, which conducts a number of educational programs for all audiences, to hold you accountable and correct you. Their A World of Difference Institute would be a great place to start. It “recognizes that attitudes and beliefs affect actions, and that each of us can have an impact on others, and ultimately, on the world in which we live.” Nick, you said much the same thing in the statement you posted on your Facebook page. The Institute’s programming helps participants “recognize bias and the harm it inflicts on society” and “improve intergroup relations” among other areas of focus. It seems like an awfully good fit for your educational needs.  New Tolerance Campaign is asking all who oppose hate to demand that Nick Cannon contact ADL to enroll himself in their A World of Difference Institute program. He owes it to his fans and followers to know what he is talking about. Let’s make sure he does. View the petition ###

For Immediate Release June 29, 2020 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org In a despicable act of anti-Semitism, NGO Believers Bail Out (BBO) organized an event on June 19 called “Muslims for Abolition Rally” that was “open to all, minus cops & zionists.” New Tolerance Campaign is calling on the group’s funders to immediately denounce the organization and withhold any future financial contributions that support this racism.  The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism, which has been adopted by 31 countries and the U.S. Department of State, includes anti-Zionism as discrimination against Jews because Zionism is a core part of Jewish identity that predates the State of Israel by over 2,000 years. Therefore, to exclude Zionists is to exclude Jews.  Believers Bail Out has no moral justification for its actions, which harm the actual fight against ending racism by perpetuating hatred on the basis of identity. Believers Bail Out recently received a grant from the Pillars Fund, which is funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, MacArthur Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Pop Culture Collab, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, and Democracy Fund. BBO’s fiscal sponsor is Sirat Chicago. NTC is mobilizing its activists to send emails and tweets to these foundations, whose choice is clear: denounce Believers Bail Out and walk away from the group, or continue lending their support to the group’s racist behavior. ###