As If You Needed Another Reason to Love Them, George and Amal Clooney Just Donated $1 Million to Fight Hate Groups in America

George and Amal Clooney
Photo: Backgrid

The horrifying displays of hate and racism in Charlottesville, Virginia, from earlier this month have been met with plenty of outrage, sadness, and a renewed sense of social justice from people all around the country. Last weekend in Boston, a few hundred who gathered for a self-described “free speech” rally were outnumbered by peaceful counter-protestors numbering in the thousands. In fact, the public repudiation against these white nationalist groups has been so strong, 67 “America First” rallies have been canceled in 36 states nationwide.

Now George and Amal Clooney are taking their activism a step further, donating $1 million from the Clooney Foundation for Justice to help the Southern Poverty Law Center fight hate groups in the United States. “What happened in Charlottesville, and what is happening in communities across our country, demands our collective engagement to stand up to hate,” the Clooneys said in a statement. “We are deeply grateful to the Clooney Foundation for standing with us at this critical moment in our country’s fight against hate,” added SPLC president Richard Cohen.

The Clooneys’ generous donation comes only a few weeks after the couple (and new parents to twins Ella and Alexander), pledged $3.25 million to help 3,000 Syrian refugee children go to school in Lebanon. According to the United Nations, more than 200,000 Syrian child refugees living in Lebanon do not attend school. “We don’t want to lose an entire generation because they had the bad luck of being born in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said the couple at the time. As if we needed any more reasons to love these two.