A lot’s been said in the wake of the Charlottesville white supremacist marches and subsequent act of domestic terrorism that caused the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Not all of it good. A fair chunk of it fairly appalling. And the worst of it coming from the office of the President of the United States.
The previous occupant of the position, Barack Obama, has been sporadically active in the public sphere ever since his term as POTUS came to an official close back in January.
But the events in Charlottesville, Virginia over this past weekend prompted the 44th President to rejoin public discourse on the growing unrest in the US.
Obama returned to Twitter to share a message of peace, love, and equality, choosing a simple quote from Nelson Mandela‘s 1994 autobiography ‘Long Road to Freedom.’
“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 first of the three-part tweet featured a photo of the then-President in 2012, outside a daycare facility situated next to Sasha Obama‘s school in Bethesda, Maryland.
That first tweet, containing the leading sentiment “No on is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion…” struck a chord with Twitter users, and since its posting three days ago it has since become the most liked Tweet in the website’s history.
Earlier today the Obama tweet overtook Ariana Grande‘s Tweet expressing grief in the immediate aftermath of the Manchester attack at her concert back in May.
https://twitter.com/ArianaGrande/status/866849021519966208
In terms of re-tweets, the Obama tweet sits at fifth on the all-time list, behind Grande’s tweet above in fourth, a tweet from Louis Tomlinson to Harry Styles in third, the famous Ellen DeGeneres Oscars selfie in second, and that one kid chasing a year’s supply of nuggets, which sits atop the RT pile.
Interesting to note that, despite the disparity in subject matter, not a single one of those posts mentioned above contains any expression of hate.
