Press Releases

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. ###

For Immediate Release June 5, 2020 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org New York City has been hit especially hard with COVID-19, and its leaders responded with strict stay at home and social distancing laws enforced by police. These rules continue with one exception – the recent protests sparked by the detestable killing of George Floyd. New Tolerance Campaign is mobilizing its activists to send a message to NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio calling on him to stop the double standard of allowing or shutting down gatherings based solely on his own opinion of what’s important. At the direction of Mayor de Blasio, New Yorkers gathering in groups of 10 or more to mourn their dead, practice their religion, or protest the closure of their businesses are arrested. Groups gathering in the hundreds or thousands to protest police brutality are left alone. Either COVID-related social restrictions are vital for public health, or they are not. Why people gather should not be a factor if the concern, as de Blasio has said, is combating an indiscriminate health pandemic that has killed over 100,000 Americans. When asked about his inconsistent position, de Blasio responded by saying, “when you see a nation, an entire nation, simultaneously grappling with an extraordinary crisis seeded in 400 years of American racism, I’m sorry, that is not the same question as the understandably aggrieved store owner or the devout religious person who wants to go back to services.” While de Blasio may care why certain people gather, COVID-19 does not. Either these restrictions are necessary to stop COVID, or they are not. To now qualify them based on de Blasio’s perception of certain people’s needs undermines the argument that they were so vital in the first place. NTC’s message to de Blasio is this: freedom of speech, assembly, and religion are all enshrined in the First Amendment for a reason. Suspending gatherings across the board in a pandemic is one thing, but if he feels it is necessary to lock down his city, he should apply the same rules to everyone.  ###

For Immediate Release April 29, 2020 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org Worcester State University (WSU), a public university in Massachusetts, boasts “open exchange of ideas” as one if its key principles, but its Student Government Association’s (SGA) recent rejection of a student application for a Turning Point USA chapter displays clear viewpoint bias, violating both the school’s own standards and their First Amendment obligations as a public university. New Tolerance Campaign is calling on WSU President Barry Maloney to stand by the university’s stated principles and stop this reckless discrimination! According to an investigation by the non-partisan Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), students Tony Winship and Alvin Marchena went through WSU’s standard process of establishing interest in a new club and obtaining a faculty supervisor. The students then made a presentation to the SGA who denied their request because of potential “negative impact on campus climate.” Turning Point describes itself “as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote freedom,” and its ideology is unmistakably right-wing. Turning Point’s leaders’ controversial statements and members’ edgy activism have gained national attention on more than a few occasions. But WSU describes itself in the student handbook as “an inclusive community that supports each person’s First Amendment right to express opinions and ideas, including unpopular or controversial viewpoints, without governmental interference, retaliation or punishment.” Winship had this to say: “We spoke to hundreds of students while tabling and only a retired art professor had an issue with our group. Clearly the SGA doesn’t represent the students anymore. Despite all of this we remain hopeful the university will eventually do the right thing.” Though WSU officials have said the decision was the SGA’s to make, as FIRE wrote in a letter to the school, “public colleges and universities cannot deny official recognition to student organizations based on viewpoint. Doing so is an abdication of their well-established constitutional obligations.” Public universities are a place where students should be engaging with controversial ideas, and their right to do this is protected by the Constitution. With just a few clicks, concerned activists can join NTC in telling WSU that their discriminatory behavior is not only violating students’ First Amendment rights, but setting a terrible example for its students. ###

For Immediate Release April 14, 2020 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org Freedom of the press is essential to American freedom. Our nation’s largest universities should be defenders of that freedom, not obstacles to it. This is especially true of one with “Liberty” in its name. That is why New Tolerance Campaign is calling on activists across the country to tell Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. to retract the arrest warrants his university issued against two journalists.  Under the leadership of Jerry Falwell Jr., Liberty obtained arrest warrants against two journalists accusing them of trespassing on its campus. The journalists, a freelance photographer for The New York Times and a reporter for ProPublica, had both visited campus before contributing to unflattering stories about Liberty’s controversial response to COVID-19. NTC takes no position on the validity of these articles. While the journalists were technically on private property without permission, pedestrians stroll onto college campuses all the time without fear of criminal prosecution. Falwell defended the criminal charges by saying that he was protecting his students from these journalists who were likely coming from COVID-19 hotspots like New York and D.C., though students are allowed to return to campus regardless of where they had traveled so long as they self-quarantine for two weeks. Further, just days after the arrest warrants were issued, Liberty’s own news outlet wrote a story lamenting that an alumnus’s arrest while protesting an abortion clinic “is evidence that the government is intent on using regulations imposed by COVID-19 to suppress religious expression.” If the First Amendment is as sacred to Liberty as this story suggests, its stance on the First Amendment on its own campus is hypocritical. Liberty President Falwell’s inconsistent policy towards tolerance does his students and those that follow his leadership a great injustice by leading them down the path of hypocrisy. Liberty should live up to its name by immediately dropping the charges against the journalists and taking the First Amendment seriously. ###

For Immediate Release April 2, 2020 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org The COVID-19 pandemic has infected 930,000 people and killed at least 47,000 globally. It has brought many cities and countries to a near stand-still, creating historic rates of unemployment and economic hardship with no end in sight. The New Tolerance Campaign recently ran several campaigns thanking some of our society’s good Samaritans that have risked their physical and economic health to keep people healthy and safe. Unfortunately, not all responses to the COVID crisis have been positive. University of Wisconsin-Parkside Professor Seif Dana’s comments are too reprehensible to ignore.  NTC is calling on its activists to tell Chancellor Debbie Ford of UW-Parkside to fire Dana for his despicable comments on terrorist organization Hezbollah’s television station. Dana is the Associate Dean of UW-Parkside’s College of Social Science and Professional Studies, and Institute for Professional Educator Development Department Chair. On April 1st, the Jewish News Syndicate broke the story that Dana had told terrorist organization Hezbollah’s television news station that COVID-19 is the result of a leak “from a laboratory at Fort Detrick in the United States,” and compared it to America’s bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.  In the same interview, Dana simultaneously downplayed the impact of the coronavirus, stating that “more people die every year, not just from diseases that you can get vaccinated for, like malaria, but also from the West’s economic policies…than what is happening now.” Dana then compared the situation to Hitler’s actions in World War II: “This is exactly what happened with Hitler. Hitler did not do anything out of the ordinary. He did not do anything that had not been done by the Europeans before….Hitler came to be viewed as Satan just because he did what he did in Europe.” These outrageous comments, clearly meant to spread a conspiracy theory designed to rile the audience up rather than ease the tension and stress that everyone is feeling, are an abomination of the responsible and fact-based approach we expect our professors of higher education to take. UW-Parkside’s mission includes the effort to “generate, disseminate and apply knowledge through research, professional and creative activity that benefits communities throughout the region and the world.” Dana not only missed that mark completely, but he purposefully flouted it in conduct that is unacceptable for someone with his dual leadership roles at a respected university. He must go. Join New Tolerance Campaign in calling on UW-Parkside’s Chancellor to fire Dana and expel his poisonous conspiratorial worldview from campus. ###

For Immediate Release March 19, 2020 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org The New Tolerance Campaign (NTC) has a reputation for calling out organizations and leaders for their wrongdoings and demanding they correct course. Today, however, we’re switching gears to recognize and thank five companies that are doing good in the face of the deadly Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic by going above and beyond to help their employees and communities. To do this, NTC is creating a series of thank you cards that people can digitally sign and personalize. NTC will also give signers a simple way to tweet their gratitude and ask others to sign the card as well. NTC will then send a copy of the thank you card and responses by both email and snail mail to the recipients. We will engage our current network of activists and run ads on Facebook inviting people across the country to participate. The first thank you card launching today will go to restaurateur and philanthropist José Andrés and his company ThinkFoodGroup. Andrés proactively turned his upscale restaurants in the NYC and Washington D.C. areas into “community kitchens” where those who are struggling can get free meals, while those who can afford to pay can get a meal for an unusually reasonable price of $7. The continued cash flow will allow ThinkFoodGroup to pay all employees their full wages as they serve those in the community who need it most. He described his decision in a moving video that’s well worth a watch.  NTC has four additional recipients that will be rolled out daily over the following week, but suggestions are welcome and can be sent to info@newtolerance.org. New Tolerance Campaign was founded on the belief that businesses, organizations, and community leaders have the power and responsibility to create a more tolerant and compassionate society, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to lift up those who are doing it right!  ###

For immediate release March 9, 2020 NTC is mobilizing activists to demand that Apple stop its grotesque use of forced Uyghur labor in their Chinese factories. This hypocritical practice – Apple often claims to be socially aware – is incredibly inhumane. Now that Apple is aware of their human rights violations, they must stop them immediately. Over the last two years, the world’s eyes have been opened to the cruel treatment of China’s Uyghur Muslim population by its government, which has been using an advanced surveillance state to abduct, isolate and brainwash innocent Uyghurs because of their religious beliefs. On March 1st, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) released an explosive report revealing a sickening new twist to the terrifying saga: many of these already tortured Uyghurs are being rented as slave labor to Chinese manufacturers producing products for well-known American companies. After being held in dystopian brainwashing camps, Uyghurs are shipped across the country to work in factories. They aren’t allowed to leave or practice their religion, and any time away from the factory floor is spent in indoctrination classes meant to strip them of their Uyghur identity. Through extensive research, ASPI found that participating factories were in the supply lines of at least 83 American and international brands including Apple, Nike, Amazon, Victoria’s Secret, and Nintendo. While it’s possible that these companies previously had no idea what was going on, they know now. We’re starting with Apple because they claim to “hold ourselves and our suppliers to the highest standards to ensure everyone is treated with dignity and respect.” Yet, ASPI identified at least four Apple-linked factories that are using forced Uyghur labor, including one that CEO Tim Cook visited in 2017. In addition to the activism platform, NTC is also running Facebook ads targeting Apple employees: Apple responded to the initial report with a statement saying that they were unaware, but they need to know that their customers and the American people are watching closely and expect them to take absolutely corrective action as soon as possible. They can choose to be heroes to thousands or willing perpetrators of one of the greatest human rights abuses of our time. ### Photo Source: ‘Strengthening patriotism education and building a bridge of national unity’ (加强爱国主义教育搭建民族团结连心桥), China Ethnic Religion Net (中国民族宗教网), 7 November 2019, online.