Schwarzenegger donates 100,000 USD after "horrified" by racists in Charlottesville

Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-15 17:15:39|Editor: Mengjie
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LOS ANGELES, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Former superstar and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has donated 100,000 U.S. dollars to Simon Wiesenthal Center, emphasizing "there is no room for hate and bigotry" in the United States.

"America is a great nation of tolerance and inclusion. There is no room for hate and bigotry. It's up to all of us to raise our voices to ensure that hate never wins," Schwarzenegger told Xinhua Monday night confirming the donation.

"I will say again, there is no white America ... there is only the United States of America," he said.

Schwarzenegger announced his donation on his official Facebook page Sunday night, saying he was "horrified by the images of Nazis and white supremacists" marching in Charlottesville of Virginia and "heartbroken that a domestic terrorist took an innocent life."

On Aug. 12, thousands of white nationalists, neo-Confederates and right-wing protesters, clashed with groups that oppose them, during demonstrations in Charlottesville, a historic college town in Virginia.

After hours of brawls, a sports car ploughed into a group of counter-white supremacist protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19 others.

"While these so-called 'white nationalists' are lucky to live in a country that defends their right to voice their awful, incorrect, hateful opinions, the rest of us must use our voices and resources to condemn hate and teach tolerance at every opportunity," Schwarzenegger wrote.

"My message to them is simple: you will not win. Our voices are louder and stronger," he added.

A Los Angeles-based NGO, Simon Wiesenthal Center, praised Schwarzenegger for speaking out against Saturday's white supremacist violence in Charlottesville.

"We've never been prouder of his leadership than when we saw his tweet last night challenging everyone to do more in the fight against hate," Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a statement issued Monday.

Simon Wiesenthal Center was established in 1977 and named for Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. The organization aims to foster tolerance and understanding through community involvement, educational outreach and social action.

In an earlier statement, Simon Wiesenthal Center pointed out that the torch march organized by white supremacists in Charlottesville and chants of the slogan "Blood and Soil" copied mass Nazi rallies in Nuremberg and elsewhere in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s.

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