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Washington, D.C. – Today, the League of Conservation Voters issued the following statement in response to Trump’s executive order on protecting racist monuments, memorials, and statues from Conservation Program Director Alex Taurel:
“With a nation in pain from the deeply embedded structural racism in our systems and institutions, President Trump is defending monuments, memorials, and statues that perpetuate anti-Blackness instead of defending and protecting people. The preservation of these monuments, memorials, and statues protects nothing but the legacy of racism.
“Our nation’s racist history must not be forgotten — but statues in public parks memorializing Confederate leaders and those who defended slavery, and colonizers like Columbus who gained their fame from the forced assimilation and displacement of Indigenous people, among other racist and oppressive symbols can no longer be tolerated. This executive order is especially hypocritical coming from a president who has approved the destruction of Indigenous cultural and natural heritage in places like the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument for construction of the border wall, around Chaco Canyon for oil and gas leases, and Bears Ears National Monument that was conceived by a consortium of tribes. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color have a right to feel safe and welcome in public spaces, but that can’t happen when symbols of racism and oppression are being celebrated in our parks.”
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