National Hispanic Leadership Agenda Members Call For Saturday Night Live To Drop Trump

The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda -- a coalition of 40 leading national and regional Hispanic organizations -- is calling for NBC Universal to revoke Donald Trump's invitation to host Saturday Night Live.

The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA) is condemning the NBC network after it announced that Donald Trump is scheduled to host Saturday Night Live on November 7. The NHLA previously praised the network when they cut all business ties with Trump following his comments about immigrants, explaining that Trump's “derogatory statements” were antithetical to the network's values.

In an October 15 letter sent to Stephen Burke, NBC Universal's CEO, and Lorne Michaels, Saturday Night Live's executive producer, the NHLA criticized the network for giving the GOP presidential candidate a platform, which in their opinion would “legitimize and validate his anti-Latino comments,” and denounced the show's lackluster track record with Latino representation: in 41 seasons, the show has only cast 2 Latinos and zero Latinas:

NHLA is flabbergasted that Saturday Night Live (SNL) has invited Donald Trump to host the November 7, 2015 show. 

Donald Trump has yet to apologize for his bigoted comments about Mexican immigrants. Allowing Trump to host SNL will legitimize and validate his anti-Latino comments. NHLA had praised NBCUniversal, when it severed its ties with Donald Trump. We are appalled that you would enable Trump's hateful speech for nothing less than a ratings ploy and ask that you rescind the SNL invitation. 

How can SNL justify casting zero Latinas over 41 seasons and only 2 Latinos over the same period, while promoting Trump's divisive speech toward Latinos? U.S. Latinos represent more than half (56%) of net population growth from 2000 to 2010 and are projected to contribute 100 percent of the population growth between the ages of 18-49, key demographics for television networks. On one hand, Comcast is reaching out to Latino viewers on its English language platforms and on Telemundo, its Spanish-language network, while it uses the other hand to face slap us with this unconscionable invitation to Trump. It is unconscionable that a major U.S. corporation-- who needs Latino viewers--is acting so clueless.