U.S. actor Kal Penn turned a racist online message into positive action by raising more than $800,000 for Syrian refugees in the name of the Instagram troll who posted the hateful comment. The actor said the generous donations have come from all 50 U.S. states and 44 different countries, with the highest contributions from those other countries coming from Canada.
On the day after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday temporarily closing the country鈥檚 borders to all refugees, immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim nations and indefinitely barring Syrian refugees, to share his disapproval. below his post caught the actor鈥檚 eye.
鈥淏ecause you don鈥檛 belong in this country you F***ing joke,鈥� the message read.
Rather than respond to the online troll directly, the actor, who was born to Indian immigrants in New Jersey, took a screengrab of the comment and used it to with a goal of $2,500 for Syrian refugees on Saturday.
Penn shared the screengrab of message and wrote 鈥淒onating to Syrian refugees in the name of the dude who said I don鈥檛 belong in America鈥� on the site Crowdrise.
The star of TV shows 鈥淒esignated Survivor鈥� and 鈥淗ouse鈥� as well as the Harold & Kumar films, told CTV鈥檚 Your Morning on Wednesday that his campaign had surpassed the $2,500-target within 20 minutes of launching it.
鈥淣ot because of me but because people felt the same way that I did and kept sharing it,鈥� Penn explained.
Penn, who served as the White House Associate Director of Public Engagement under then-president Barack Obama, said he came up with the idea because he was frustrated with Trump鈥檚 recent policies.
鈥淪o many of us are so irritated at what President Trump鈥檚 doing in our names and we want to respond with love and joy and with positivity and really make a difference,鈥� Penn said.
He said he wanted to spread a different message to the rest of the world to counter Trump.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not who we are,鈥� Penn said. 鈥淭he America that I grew up in and was born and raised in is not hateful and is not vitriolic in the way that we鈥檙e seeing in some of the narrative coming out of the White House.鈥�
As of Wednesday morning, Penn鈥檚 crowdfunding campaign has raised $810,125 for the , an aid group supporting Syrian refugees.
Penn said he believes many Americans are unwilling to sit back and allow Trump to dictate the country鈥檚 image for the next four years.
鈥淚t seems like Donald Trump is bringing America together just not in the way he thought he would,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e coming together in opposition to some of these awful policies.鈥�
