PhotoDude.com

Sat. Sep 28, 2002

Censored in the Name of MLK

Censored in the Name of MLK – "When 26-year-old Steve Reali Robinson watched a cantankerous old barber deride Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks in the hit comedy ’Barbershop,’ he just laughed along with other moviegoers. But the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton weren’t smiling. They demanded an apology and called on MGM to remove the scenes from future releases."

That’s quite a demand. However, in the name of goodwill, the movie’s "producers, director and screenwriter apologized, saying they didn’t intend to offend anyone."

But Al Sharpton says ”To take two people that are victims of the civil rights movement Dr. King was killed, Rosa Parks arrested and mock them is something that is offensive and something that is insulting.”

And apparently, because that expression is deemed offensive by some (though the movie itself is raking in the dough), Sharpton and Jesse Jackson demand that it be removed from the movie. Not a suggestion that people think before attending, or even a boycott, but a direct call for censorship.

Is that what Martin Luther King marched and died for? So that in the future, creative expression that is deemed offensive by a few can be censored from being view by any?

I’m sure he would be proud of his disciples.

"In the film itself, Cedric the Entertainer plays an older character who is scolded by younger ones for his position." Oh, don’t bother the Reverends with context, then it might be clear it’s simply a movie in which a view is expressed, and denounced. Much better that it never be heard at all.