Obama’s post-Charlottesville tweet is most-liked ever
Quoting Nelson Mandela, the former president says, ‘No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, background or religion’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
Former US president Barack Obama’s tweet in response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend is now the platform’s most-liked post ever.
Obama tweeted Saturday night: “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion…” The quote comes from Nelson Mandela’s autobiography “Long Walk to Freedom.” Obama posted the tweet alongside a picture of himself smiling at a group of children of different races.
By Wednesday morning, the tweet had almost three million likes, making it the most-liked tweet of all time, Twitter confirmed. Ariana Grande’s tweet following a deadly bombing at her concert in England held the previous top spot with 2.7 million likes.
The positive reception came in contrast to the uproar following the White House’s reaction to the deadly clashes that climaxed with a car plowing into a group of peaceful anti-racist counter-protesters, killing one person and injuring 26 others amid days of race-fueled marches and violent clashes in Virginia.
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion…" pic.twitter.com/InZ58zkoAm
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017
"People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love…"
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017
"…For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." – Nelson Mandela
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017
The White House was silent for hours after the Friday rally except for a tweet from first lady Melania Trump: “Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let’s communicate w/o hate in our hearts.”
Trump later tweeted: “We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for.” He also said “there is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!” Trump tweeted condolences about the woman killed the protests Saturday evening, more than five hours after the crash.
He later blamed “many sides” for the violent clashes and contended that the “hatred and bigotry” broadcast across the country had taken root long before his political ascendancy.
As pressure to explicitly condemn the white supremacist rally increased, Trump made an additional statement Monday, two days after the incident, condemning racism as “evil,” and singling out the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis as “repugnant.” But he walked back those comments on Tuesday, saying the “alt-left” was also responsible for the violence.
The Times of Israel Community.