Indian-American Kal Penn resigns from Trump's arts commission

August 18, 2017 22:15

Popular Indian-American actor, known for his role in the movie Namesake, has resigned from the White House advisory panel on the arts and humanities in response to President Trump's divisive comments on the deadly violence in Charlottesville.

Fifteen other members of the panel also resigned.

The move follows the mass exodus of major business CEOs who quit two White House panels this week to protest the president's response to last weekend's clashes between far-right groups and counter-protesters.

"Reproach and censure in the strongest possible terms are necessary following your support of the hate groups and terrorists who killed and injured fellow Americans in Charlottesville," the 16 wrote in a letter (in image) to Trump. "The false equivalencies you push cannot stand."

"Supremacy, discrimination, and vitriol are not American values," it said. "Your values are not American values."

The Presidents Committee on the Arts and the Humanities was created in 1982 under President Reagan, and acts as an advisory committee to the White House on cultural issues.

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