The chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is calling on the Trump administration to condemn a pair of racist events that took place this week.
Leon Russell, board chairman of the NAACP, said in a statement that he’s “deeply troubled and disturbed” after a noose was found in the National Museum of African American History and Culture in D.C. and the N-word was sprayed on the front gate of basketball star LeBron James’s home in Brentwood, Calif.
“Leaving a noose – a symbol and weapon of hate – in front of the new National Museum of African American History and Culture and vandalizing the home of NBA superstar LeBron James, underscore the recent increase in hate crimes committed against African-Americans under the Trump Administration,” Russell said. “The NAACP will not sit by idly while our people continue to be assailed by racist and cowardly actions.”
{mosads}Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said Tuesday that Trump was responsible for a “wave” of racist and religious violence after a man directing anti-Muslim rhetoric at two young women fatally stabbed two men in Portland, Ore.
Critics of Trump’s presidential campaign often accused him of proposing discriminatory policies and racist language, claims that Trump repeatedly denied.
“I am not a racist, in fact, I am the least racist person that you’ve ever encountered,” Trump told The Washington Post in June 2016.