For those Latinos who wistfully bemoan the need for “our own Latino NAACP” that entity exists and is one of the leading organizations to stand up against Donald Trump hosting Saturday Night Live on Saturday, November 7th. The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) has been fighting for the rights and the issues of Latinos in the U.S. since 1986, be it in portrayals of Latinos in media or in policy making in D.C. As such Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition joined several other Latino leaders at a public rally coordinated by the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda. This rally could go down in history as one of the most important rallys in standing up against racism against Latinos in the U.S. no matter what the outcome.
Multiple public-interest organizations and over 100 enthusiastic private citizens from all over the country participated in a rally in front of the Comcast Building at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City to deliver their message and over half a million signatures on a petition, urging NBCUniversal to rescind their invitation to Donald Trump to host Saturday Night Live on November 7th. It’ obvious this will since the promos have been taped and aired and the segments are being shot in the two days leading up to Saturday’s air date.
Both NBC and SNL have ignored the Latino community’s protests, letter, and social media outcries leading up to the rally.
Earlier in the day NHMC sent a letter addressed to NBCUniversal CEO Stephen Burke and SNL Executive Producer Lorne Michaels, which was also co-signed by 24 other national organizations, requesting the removal of Trump. The letter statedin part: “The organizations below respectfully request that another host substitute Donald Trump on your November 7th Saturday Night Live broadcast. Saturday Night Live has rarely invited someone to host who so blatantly spews racist and prejudicial ideologies to appeal to a bigoted subsection of the American electorate. He has always been an unsavory character, but he has now emerged as a passionate racist and that is no laughing matter.”
One of the most vocal critics of Trump is Representative Luis V. Gutiérrez, Democrat of Illinois on Wednesday delivered this statement: “When a TV personality calls Mexicans and Latinos criminals and rapists, a corporate network should not give him 90 minutes of free airtime in an entertainment venue without his first apologizing to the American people,” he stated and added, “Did I miss an apology?” Previously, before a session of Congress, Gutierrez had asked, “If Donald Trump had said gays and lesbians were murdering and raping Americans, would he get to host the show?”
On the international front, prominent figures from Pulitzer prize winner Junot Díaz to Oscar winning Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubeski, to actor Demian Bichir, as well as other luminaries from all walks of life from the U.S., Latin American and Spain signed a statement rejecting Donald Trump’s anti-immigrations stance.
All this has fallen on deaf ears. Michaels has not felt the need to address the controversy, seemingly un-concerned with the community’s outrage. For his part, presidential candidate Donald Trump cavalierly commented to the New York Times, “Oh, good, it will get even higher ratings,” adding, “It’s going to be one of the highest-rated shows ever.”
Well known comedian John Leguizamo also spoke out prior to the rally on Yahoo News saying in part “I find it hurtful and insulting, and…[they’re] celebrating someone [Trump] who has said some horrible things. I find it unacceptable. I will not watch … I won’t watch ‘SNL’ anymore.”
Matthew Rozsa of the dailydot.com presents a different view on the significance of Trump’s hosting duties stating in his post of Oct. 21st. “While they’re correct to target Donald Trump’s anti-Latino views, the NHLA wrong in one important respect: “Racism will not be given a “thumbs up” when Trump hosts an episode of Saturday Night Live next month.” Although Rozsa states that SNL might be enabling “Trump’s hateful speech for nothing (more) than a ratings ploy,” he sites Trump’s rise in the polling numbers that has the network backtracking from their comments in July, “Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump.” Rozsa further states that he does not believe SNL will “sanitized” or endorse what many consider Trump’s “racist” remarks by virtue of appearing on SNL. That remains to bee seen.
For his part, Juan Escalante, the author of the petition to get rid of Trump and the digital campaigns manager for America’s Voice, another group participating in the coalition said, “It is shameful for SNL and NBC to think that racism can be repackaged as comedy,”
Come Saturday we’ll see if Latinos tune in to watch or like Leguizamo, will refuse to watch SNL. And even if they do watch or not, since Nielsen ratings have yet to find a way to monitor English-speaking Latino audiences, which make up the lion’s share of the 54 million U.S. Latino, how will we know what effect they had?
Actress Eva Longoria advocates for a boycott of SNL as a way make an impact, stating publicly that telling Michaels who he can or cannot book on his show infringes on his “freedom of speech, freedom of press” rights. “Lorne Michaels has a right to book whoever he wants,” Longoria stated last week.
Longoria, sounding more and more like the producer that she is, (producing shows like Devious Maids and the new NBC show Telenovela), drew the criticism by Latinos on social media (where she is usually lauded for her leadership and advocacy) when she stood up for Michael’s freedom of speech rights. Instead Longoria advocates for an alternative. “We as a Hispanic community have a choice to not watch it. That’s our choice,” she continued. “That’s what we can do. That’s what you’re supposed to do. Boycott that night, and then let that show feel that ‘oh, OK we did make a bad decision.’
If the participating organizations, which have mobilized against Trump and the international community and politicians were to come up with a verifiable method to gauge the impact Latinos can have as viewers of a show like SNL, that be historic and a game changer.
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