The entire President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, that includes Indian-Americans Jhumpa lahiri and Kal Penn, has resigned over President Donald Trump’s controversial remarks after the racist violence in Virginia.
In a letter signed by 16 of 17 committee members, including author lahiri and actor Penn, Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change has also been cited as a reason for their resignation.
Significantly, their resignation letter’s main six paragraphs spell out “r-e-s-i-s-t”. “Supremacy, discrimination, and vitriol are not American values. Your values are not American values. We must be better than this. We are better than this. If this is not clear to you, then we call on you to resign your office, too,” said members of the presidential advisory committee.