Target: Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State
Goal: Support G20 summit’s goals of decreasing oppression and wealth inequality.
The U.S. president recently made headlines when he announced he would boycott the annual G20 summit – hosting the most powerful economies in the world – because it would be held in South Africa. The president has claimed, without evidence, that white South Africans are the victims of a genocide… despite the statistics for homicides in the country indicating otherwise. Because of these claims, white and often wealthy South Africans have been handed front-of-line passes for refugee status in the United States. Meanwhile, atrocities and widening wealth gaps continue to unfold daily across the world, while America looks the other way.
A recent explosion at a high school in Indonesia, for example, injured dozens of people. The explosion took place at a mosque, and evidence collected from the suspect reportedly bore white supremacist slogans. And on the African continent, terrorist groups like Boko Haram still inflict untold horrors on the people. South Africa, the first African nation to host the G20 summit, had made tackling wealth inequality, sustainable energy, and other betterment goals centerpieces of the conference’s themes. American leaders apparently took offense at the inclusion of such goals and even called them “anti-Americanism.”
Sign the petition below to remind U.S. leaders what America is supposed to stand for and achieve.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Secretary Rubio,
You recently decried the G20 summit themes of “solidarity, equality, and sustainability” as “anti-American.” What “America” do you live in? Wealth inequality has kept millions of Africans living in poverty, and it has become a rising concern in the United States as well. Sustainability is the key to American endurance and to a long-term future. And solidarity is right in the name: the “United” States. These goals should be celebrated and supported, not belittled. Nor should they be brushed aside by distractions like a “white genocide” that never was. If you are seeking to remedy instances of oppression, racism, and terror, you will find no shortage: suspected white supremacist-inspired bombings in Indonesia, violent crime rates disproportionately impacting Black citizens in South Africa and beyond, and mass starvations and humanitarian disasters ignored and defunded by an administration more interested in putting wealthy farmers at the front of the line.
Stop the grandstanding, roll up your sleeves, and do the hard work – including the G20 support for an independent panel addressing wealth inequality — of protecting vulnerable people worldwide.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Guduru Ajay Bhargav
