The situation: We cannot wait until the 2018-midterm elections to take a stand against Donald Trump’s agenda of hate. We must do it now in a way that will personally affect him. We need to target the thing he loves most, his wallet.
What we want to do about it: The Boycotting Bigotry campaign aims to address Trump’s blatant conflicts of interest with a particular focus on the bigotry and racism that they are propping up in the White House. This bigot-in-chief is running the country, and profiting off of it at the same time. It’s time to do something about it. We’re using the tool we know best, comedy.
We're launching regionally targeted boycott measures in South Florida - where we'll target his lucrative golf courses and resorts; DC - where we'll target his Trump International Hotel; and New Jersey - where we'll focus on his frequently visited Bedminster property. We'll be putting up ads all over town and in local media that say things like "The Mar-a-lago because, why not golf with a racist?" or "The Trump International Hotel, why not stay in the lap of bigotry?" We want to shame individuals and organizations from using these properties for golf, lodging, leisure, dining, and entertainment. We'll be staging street actions and making videos of our efforts to raise awareness nationally.
If you saw our last film The Muslims Are Coming! or followed our last poster campaign in the New York City subway system (which resulted in a first amendment lawsuit, that we won!) then you'll have a sense of what we might do, the comedy that will ensue, and the change we hope to achieve. We hope you'll join us.
Please consider donating to make the campaign happen.
Negin Farsad was named one of the Funniest Women of 2015 by Huffington Post, named one of the 10 Best Feminist Comedians by Paper Magazine, and was selected as a TEDFellow for her work in social justice comedy. She is the author of How to Make White People Laugh, a memoir-meets-social-justice-comedy manifesto which has been nominated for a Thurber Prize for Humor (published by Grand Central/Hachette). Farsad is host of Fake the Nation, a political comedy round-table podcast on the Earwolf network. She is also the director/writer/star of the romantic comedy 3rd Street Blackout, starring Janeane Garofalo, Ed Weeks, and John Hodgman. You can see her in the upcoming season of HBO's High Maintenance. She has written for/appeared on Comedy Central, MTV, PBS, IFC, Nickelodeon and others. She co-directed/produced The Muslims Are Coming! starring Jon Stewart, David Cross and Lewis Black and Nerdcore Rising starring Weird Al Yankovic. She has written good-old fashioned articles for The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Wired and others. She has sued New York State’s MTA over the right to put up funny posters about Muslims and WON. She started her comedy career as a Cornell and Columbia-educated policy advisor for the City of New York.
Dean, a lawyer turned writer and award winning comedian, has been using his skills to both entertain and educate people for years. He’s the host of SiriusXM radio’s daily program “The Dean Obeidallah show” making him the first Muslim American to host a national radio show. Dean is the co-director/co-producer of the comedy documentary entitled “The Muslims are Coming!” featuring a stand up comedy tour of Muslim-American comedians performing free shows across the South and West in the hopes of countering anti-Muslim bigotry. The film features interviews with a cross section of luminaries including The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, comedians Lewis Black, David Cross and many more. Dean writes weekly for The Daily Beast and for CNN.com Opinion. He has also written articles for various other publications including The Atlantic, The Washington Post and The Huffington Post.