Brandon Stanton, curator of the popular Web site Humans of New York, has decided to break his personal policy against taking sides in political discussions by openly decrying Donald Trump in a letter to Trump posted on the site’s Facebook page. And in an interview on Yahoo! News, which you can view above, he discussed the decision with Katie Couric, Yahoo Global News Anchor.
“I try my hardest not to be political. I’ve refused to interview several of your fellow candidates. I didn’t want to risk any personal goodwill by appearing to take sides in a contentious election,” Stanton wrote. “I thought: ‘Maybe the timing is not right.’ But I realize now that there is no correct time to oppose violence and prejudice. The time is always now. Because along with millions of Americans, I’ve come to realize that opposing you is no longer a political decision. It is a moral one.”
Stanton took exception with what he referred to as Trump’s encouragement of “prejudice and violence in the pursuit of personal power,” noting, in particular, the sort of tweets Trump retweets from his personal account, as well as his initial reluctance to disavow support from the Ku Klux Klan and the more extreme rhetoric Trump has made with regards to Muslims in his campaign speeches.
“I am a journalist, Mr. Trump. And over the last two years I have conducted extensive interviews with hundreds of Muslims, chosen at random, on the streets of Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan. I’ve also interviewed hundreds of Syrian and Iraqi refugees across seven different countries. And I can confirm — the hateful one is you.”
To Couric, Stanton said he’s worried that once we get beyond primary season and enter the general election season, Trump would rebrand himself as more moderate than he’s come off thus far in this election cycle. Stanton also brought up the oft-mentioned comparison to Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler, pointing out what Stanton sees as distinct parallels between then and now in terms of tone and rhetoric.
Stanton began the Humans of New York project in 2010. In the beginning, Stanton photographed people on the streets of New York City; over time, it grew from a purely photographic project into a platform Stanton used to listen to people’s stories and publish segments of them. Today, the Humans of New York Facebook page has more 17 million followers.