The children of music icon Johnny Cash have condemned a neo-Nazi who wore a shirt with their father's name on it during the white nationalists’ rally last week in Charlottesville, asking their “name be kept far away from destructive and hateful ideology.”
In a statement on Rosanne Cash’s Facebook page, the family said they were “sickened” by a video that showed the individual at the rally - which took the lives of three people, including two police officers - wearing the shirt.
“To any who claim supremacy over other human beings, to any who believe in racial or religious hierarchy: we are not you,” the statement from Cash’s five children reads.
“Our father, as a person, icon, or symbol, is not you. We ask that the Cash name be kept far away from destructive and hateful ideology.”
The post also details Johnny Cash’s numerous humanitarian awards and contributions to the Jewish National Fund and United Nations, while mentioning he “championed the rights of Native Americans, protested the war in Vietnam, was a voice for the poor, the struggling and the disenfranchised, and an advocate for the rights of prisoners”, among other things.
“He would be horrified at even a casual use of his name or image for an idea or a cause founded in persecution and hatred,” the statement goes on to say.
“The white supremacists and neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville are poison in our society, and an insult to every American hero who wore a uniform to fight the Nazis in WWII.”
You can read the full statement below.
