Advancement Project National Office Statement on El Paso Tragedy
WASHINGTON – On August 3, Patrick Crusius, a white supremacist, open fired at an El Paso shopping center, murdering 22 people and injuring at least 26 others. The violent attack targeting the region’s Latinx community occurred 20 minutes after the killer posted an anti-immigrant manifesto on the hate-filled social media platform 8chan. Advancement Project National Office, a multi-racial civil rights organization, released the following statement:
“We stand with the El Paso community in condemning this atrocious hate crime and mourn the lives claimed by the hatred of one white supremacist,” said Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of Advancement Project National Office. “We call this tragedy what it is: domestic terrorism. We support the grieving community’s demand for action and call for a full investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
The massacre occurs on the heels of a new report released by the U.S. Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism showing a 9% increase in hate crimes in 30 major cities in 2018.
“Racism and xenophobia have fueled terrorism against communities of color for centuries in our nation,” continued Dianis. “From the torture of Black bodies during enslavement to the shooting massacre in El Paso this weekend, the goal has always been to strike fear in the hearts of our communities for the purpose of social control. Advancement Project National Office will continue to fight white supremacy in all its forms and will work to dismantle structural racism to ensure all communities of color are free and safe.”
“While racial terrorism has been an American pastime, we also cannot divorce racist and inflammatory language toward Latinos and immigrants at the highest levels of government from the increase in white nationalistic terrorism. The flagrant ‘othering’ of Black and Brown people has galvanized those who desire to return America to a time in which Black and Brown people lacked fundamental freedoms. It is time for America to address the national security crisis of white nationalism and protect Black and Brown lives from senseless gun violence at the local, state and federal level.”
“Hate is what spurred the El Paso massacre. Hate is not a mental illness and we call on state and federal lawmakers to work with communities of color to develop long-term solutions to public safety.”
Advancement Project National Office is a cosignatory of a collective statement with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Voto Latino and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund condemning white supremacy, demanding real reform to combat hate. The organization will participate in the Rally Against White Supremacy on Tuesday, August 6 at 12 p.m. ET at Lafayette Square in Washington, DC.
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Advancement Project is a multi-racial civil rights organization. Founded by a team of veteran civil rights lawyers in 1999, Advancement Project was created to develop and inspire community-based solutions based on the same high quality legal analysis and public education campaigns that produced the landmark civil rights victories of earlier eras.
