Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 10, 2021 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org Over 1,100 New Tolerance Campaign (NTC) activists have written to the ACLU demanding the organization retract and apologize for its smear campaign of working-class victims at Smith College. “The ACLU has ruined the lives of a cafeteria worker and janitor with false accusations of racism,” stated NTC Advisory Board member Nicki Neily. “The ACLU must do the right thing by making amends to these individuals.” Two weeks ago, the New York Times published a feature exposing the damage done to a Smith College cafeteria worker and janitor after a student claimed that they had racially profiled her – a debunked charge nonetheless championed by the ACLU. Since the expose article ran, NTC has mobilized 1,130 activists (and counting) to send letters to the ACLU demanding a clear retraction and an apology to the workers unfairly branded as racists. At first, the ACLU did nothing. Then, sometime in the past few days, the original article that uncritically reported the student’s false claims disappeared from the organization’s website. Yet other articles remain (here, here, and here), repeating the unsupported claim that the incident was an example of racial profiling. “The ACLU has yet to issue any kind of apology to the people whose reputations they helped destroy,” noted Neily. “An organization that once defended civil liberties for all – no matter how unpopular they may be – has traded principle for a politicized agenda, standing by a now-debunked narrative rather than acknowledging their error. This speaks volumes about their commitment to the civil liberties of working-class Americans.” The New Tolerance Campaign is a 501c3 nonprofit watchdog organization mobilizing Americans to confront intolerance double-standards by establishment institutions, civil rights groups, universities, and socially-conscious brands View the NTC’s campaign to the ACLU here. To request an interview with Advisory Board member Nicki Neily, email kon@newtolerance.org. ###

For Immediate Release February 12, 2020 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org In the wake of the breaking Gina Carano scandal, the New Tolerance Campaign (NTC) is calling on Disney to maintain consistent standards when responding to actors’ social media posts. The watchdog organization has launched a new email campaign demanding Disney correct its tolerance hypocrisy. Disney recently fired Carano from her role in the Star Wars TV show The Mandalorian over an Instagram post comparing the treatment of conservatives to Jews during the Holocaust, an admittedly inaccurate comparison – yet took no action to similarly hyperbolic Holocaust analogies from Carano’s co-star Pedro Pascal. The inconsistency follows a recent pattern of concerning ethical decisions by Disney, raising concerns about the corporation’s commitment to uniform ethical standards. In a now-deleted Instagram post, Carano argued that “to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?” Subsequently, Disney-owned Lucasfilm released a statement saying that Carano was not an employee and wouldn’t be in the future, adding: “Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable”. Yet, Carano’s post did not “denigrate” anyone, but rather echoed the hyperbolic Holocaust analogy tweeted by Mandalorian co-star Pedro Pascal, who compared ICE detention facilities to Nazi concentration camps, a less-than-accurate comparison as well. Disney has not clarified why it held Carano to a different standard than Pascal – or the many Disney-affiliated individuals have compared Donald Trump to Hitler without repercussions. Furthermore, the credits of Disney’s recent live-action film Mulan express “special thanks” to several government entities in Xinjiang, where the Chinese government imprisons citizens in brutal camps because of their Muslim beliefs. New Tolerance Campaign’s mission is to mobilize Americans to confront intolerance double-standards by establishment institutions, including socially-conscious brands like Disney. NTC notes that Disney has fallen into the sadly familiar pattern of wielding tolerance standards selectively as a political weapon. Disney criticizes the moral conduct of certain people while ignoring vile bigotry by others – in this case even partnering with a genocidal regime for profit. Influential companies like Disney need to stop the tolerance double-standards once and for all. Ironically, the company’s over-the-top response to an Instagram post seems to validate Carano’s warning about turning neighbors into enemies. Socially responsible corporate conduct requires uniform standards applied consistently to all.  View the campaign

For Immediate Release January 29, 2021 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org On January 25th, The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency fired an employee simply for having accounts on the social media sites Parler and Gab. CEO Jennifer De Chiara claims she did this in the name of “unity, equality, and social justice.” New Tolerance Campaign contends that she got those terms entirely backward and is encouraging activists to call on the agency to reinstate the employee immediately. The news broke via a series of tweets from De Chiara: This leaves little room for doubt that Colleen Oefelein was fired solely because of her presence on these social media platforms. There have been no reports of her posting anything objectionable on these accounts or doing anything that could negatively impact her work, her clients, or her employer’s reputation. There has undoubtedly been unsavory activity on both Parler and Gab, but that is far from the only activity. Millions of decent people have sought out new outlets in fear or protest as Facebook and Twitter have increased their crackdowns on certain forms of controversial speech. The danger here is articulated well by Spiked: “Now anyone who merely uses an app is automatically tarnished thanks to the content others might have posted on it. We have reached the stage of cancel culture where you can be canceled for what others might have said. This is sinister.” One also must wonder what “unity” means to Ms. De Chiara if she finds all 15 million Parler users offensive. The De Chiara Agency’s actions are a legal gray area, but not a moral one. This is exactly the type of thing that causes division and ruins our ability to engage freely with those who have different viewpoints. NTC is calling on its activists to sign a petition demanding Ms. Oefelein’s immediate reinstatement. Joining a social media platform should not cost someone their livelihood, especially not from a company that claims unity as a guiding principle.

For Immediate Release January 11, 2021 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org On January 8th, Twitter announced that it had permanently suspended @realDonaldTrump, the personal Twitter handle of President Donald Trump, “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” after they had determined three days prior that he violated their Glorification of Violence policy. New Tolerance Campaign is now mobilizing its activists to call on Twitter to apply this policy uniformly to all government handles regardless of nationality, or reinstate Mr. Trump’s account. Consistent standards of tolerance are critical to a healthy and stable society. At issue is whether Twitter will finally apply its policies in a consistent manner. While Twitter has ended Mr. Trump’s access to its platform, it continues to allow other government leaders to use Twitter even though they routinely glorify violence on Twitter in ways that fit Twitter’s assessment of Mr. Trump’s policy violation.  The prime example is the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who routinely calls for violence against the United States and Israel, and has used Twitter to issue death threats and push COVID-19 vaccination conspiracies. Ironically, the use of Twitter by Iranians is banned by the Iranian government, which has also cut off all access to the Internet within its borders as a means of squashing speech and anti-government protests. Another troubling example is the still-allowed Twitter handle for the official Chinese Embassy in D.C., which recently tweeted “Study shows that in the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uygur [sic] women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines. They are more confident and independent.” This Tweet references the Chinese government’s imprisonment of over 1 million Chinese Uyghur Muslims into re-education concentration camps, actions that violate many international human rights statutes. NTC‘s mission is to push mainstream individuals, institutions, and companies like Twitter to maintain consistent standards of tolerance. Twitter’s blatant inconsistency in the application of its own policies is highly problematic as it creates and exacerbates divides in society that make people less tolerant towards each other. Twitter must act consistently, especially when it comes to the intersection between speech and violence.

For Immediate Release November 25, 2020 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org The New Tolerance Campaign (NTC) is mobilizing its activists to call on the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to insist the Rev. Al Sharpton issue a public apology for inciting one of the worst anti-Semitic riots in U.S. history. NTC is a watchdog organization empowering ordinary Americans to hold accountable self-proclaimed arbiters of tolerance when they betray their own stated values. For years the ADL championed the fight against anti-Semitism and intolerance. Yet it has recently strayed from its mission to advance a political agenda, embracing Sharpton to attack immigration policies and boycott Facebook for what they deem an insufficient level of censorship. The ADL once spoke unequivocally about Sharpton. In a 1992 report in the aftermath of the Crown Heights riots, the ADL assigned Sharpton “a leading role” in the pogrom and cited him among “community activists who have promoted anti-Semitism.” The report noted that Sharpton shared office space with the anti-Semitic New Alliance Party and co-chaired an event honoring Louis Farrakhan. In 1992, Sharpton defended gross anti-Semitic comments from Professor Leonard Jeffries, declaring: “If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.” Protesters led by Sharpton called Jews “bloodsuckers” and threatened to “burn and loot the Jews.” One demonstrator then did exactly that, shooting seven people. Despite this track-record of bigotry, ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has appeared on Sharpton’s MSNBC show; held a joint Capitol Hill press conference on immigration; and partnered with Sharpton to boycott Facebook. While some organizations help celebrities like Nick Cannon and Ice Cube address anti-Semitic rhetoric, the ADL has demanded nothing of Sharpton. As Tablet magazine noted, ADL CEO Greenblatt has “refused even to seek out the most minor price from Sharpton for bringing him back into the fold of acceptability – not even a simple apology that would at least telegraph a distaste for anti-Semitism to Sharpton’s many followers.” Concerned by the ADL’s failure to maintain its own basic standards of tolerance, NTC’s campaign calls upon ADL to insist Sharpton demonstrably atone for past anti-Semitic behavior. “The ADL’s embrace of Rev. Sharpton betrays its founding purpose to fight anti-Semitism,” noted NTC Advisory Board Member Nicki Neily. “By giving Sharpton a pass on his bigoted actions, ADL is undermining its core mission.” ###

For Immediate Release October 6, 2020 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org The New York Times (NYT) has violated its own standards of viewpoint tolerance in its editorial page. Republican Senator Tom Cotton’s controversial op-ed met with widespread outrage leading to the top opinion editor losing his job and an apology from The Times for not providing more context and heavier fact-checking. As if forgetting this apology, The Times has now run a straight Chinese government propaganda piece without any such measures. New Tolerance Campaign is mobilizing activists to confront The Times over this dangerously misleading hypocrisy.  On Oct 1, 2020, the NYT published an op-ed called “Hong Kong Is China, Like It or Not” by Chinese politician Regina Ip that gives mainland China’s perspective on their violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Ip misleadingly presents the pro-Democracy protestors as minority radicals and the Chinese government as the savior of peace and stability, employing all sorts of rhetorical gymnastics to downplay the government’s brutality and undermining of Hong Kong’s democracy. Take this passage for example:  To some, the new national security law is especially chilling because it seems simultaneously vague and very severe. But many laws are vague, constructively so. And this one only seems severe precisely because it fills longstanding loopholes — about subversion, secession, local terrorism, collusion with external forces. One person’s “severe” is someone else’s intended effect. To summarize in plain language: “to some, our national security law seems vague and severe. That’s because we wanted them to be vague and severe.”  Contrast this with the outcry over the Cotton NYT op-ed from June 2020, “Tom Cotton: Send in the Troops” in which a prominent U.S. Senator calls for the military to be mobilized against rioters. While this is obviously a controversial stance, as then opinion-page editor James Bennett said, “Readers who might be inclined to oppose Cotton’s position need to be fully aware of it, and reckon with it, if they hope to defeat it.” The op-ed is now preceded by a very long editor’s note saying the op-ed should not have been published without substantial revision. It lists several objections, such as “the assertion that police officers ‘bore the brunt’ of the violence is an overstatement that should have been challenged.” It claims that the headline is overly “incendiary” and the tone of the piece too harsh. The editor’s note concludes, “we failed to offer appropriate additional context — either in the text or the presentation — that could have helped readers place Senator Cotton’s views within a larger framework of debate.”  Where is this “additional context” with Ip’s op-ed? Ip makes her own dubious claims that misrepresent the situation in Hong Kong, arguably worse than those The Times stated Cotton made. And it’s hard to get much harsher than Ip’s defense of “vague and severe” crackdowns. Where is the NYT’s concern this time? This is an appalling double-standard.  The Times requests that readers email them to “report errors regarding our coverage” so NTC is mobilizing activists to do just that. They must add the context and fact-checking they promised after the Cotton op-ed to Ip’s op-ed immediately and apply their standards equally moving forward, lest they expose themselves as caring more about combating the ideas of their domestic political opponents than those of oppressive foreign regimes. ###

For Immediate Release September 9, 2020 Contact: kon@newtolerance.org Disney is hoping to make untold millions off the live-action movie Mulan, but at what cost? Along the way, it is kowtowing to the oppressive Chinese Communist Party, going out of their way to thank them in the credits despite their grotesque violations of human rights. New Tolerance Campaign is calling on its activists to pledge to boycott the movie, at least until Disney stops praising the bad guys. Disney’s animated Mulan from 1998 is about defying stereotypes, being true to yourself, honoring family, and fighting evil to protect the innocent. So why is the remake not only ignoring the plight of the Uyghur Muslims in China but thanking the very people responsible for their torment? The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) human rights abuses against the Uyghur people and other minorities are nothing short of horrifying. Chinese authorities have quietly abducted over 1 million innocent people without a word to their families and sent them to dystopian concentration camps. From there, they ship the captured people across China to be used as slave labor in factories that they cannot leave. The CCP helps themselves to everything from detainees’ hair to their vital organs. All of this is done in the name of stamping out the Uyghurs’ religion and culture and trying to make them into uniform, docile Chinese citizens – the exact opposite of everything Mulan encourages kids to be. None of this stopped Disney from filming a large portion of the new live-action Mulan in the Xinjiang region where these atrocities are primarily taking place. What’s worse, Disney thanked the Chinese Communist Party Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Committee and the Bureau of Public Security in Turpan (a city in the region) in the movie’s credits. These are the people directly responsible for this oppression and the propaganda campaigns trying to cover it up. Furthermore, in 2019 Disney CEO Bob Iger threatened to stop filming in Georgia if the state’s “heartbeat” anti-abortion bill went into effect. Uyghur women are routinely forced to have abortions by the government, but apparently that isn’t a deal-breaker for Iger. Removing a couple lines in the credits is hardly enough to make amends, but, as far as this movie goes, much of the damage has already been done. Mulan embodies values that Disney is failing to live up to itself. That’s why NTC is mobilizing its activists to pledge not to support Disney’s prioritization of profits over human rights – and lives.

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.