It’s become more apparent that social justice warriors want their movies and TV shows diverse for diversity’s sake. And now they’re trying to silence Tyler Perry for bucking that trend.
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Perry, who’s been known to create opportunities for black actors, is facing intense backlash for assembling a mostly white cast for the TLC drama series “Too Close to Home.”
The African-American filmmaker, known for his Madea movies, won’t go down without a fight, rejecting much of the criticism saying this was an “all time low” for the producer when the series first aired in 2016. Many of Perry’s critics are questioning why he would make a show with a predominantly white cast given his track record of producing films and shows with mostly black actors.
Just saw a commercial for a new Tyler Perry show and the entire cast was white…#what
— Benji Pfeffer (@PfefferBenji) August 13, 2016
My sister is watching the trailer for Tyler Perry’s newest show and she goes “Tyler Perry made a white people show?!”
— Enid (@The_EDiddy) August 8, 2016
A lot of the criticism of the show, however, turned into praise at the end of its first season.
Still, Perry was sick of being questioned why he would dare make a show with mostly white people.
“That’s totally reverse racism, because it was coming from African-American people,” Perry told the Associated Press. “I don’t know if it was because they thought I should only be giving jobs to black people. Well, I think that’s ridiculous. If you look at the hundreds of black people I’ve given jobs to and even the ones I’ve made millionaires, people of color, I just think it’s unfair.”
Perry went on to say that he has become more color-blind through his travels and interacting with people from different cultures. Social justice warriors, who previously enjoyed his films and TV shows, are rebuking Perry’s newfound mentality in favor of ethnocentrism.
“I’m just finding out more as I travel the country and world, the more I meet people, we’re all the same,” Perry said. “We all got the same dramas. So I’m not seeing color as much as I did anymore in the sense of our stories. Our stories are so similar.”
The TLC drama “Too Close to Home” premieres its second season on Wednesday, January 4th.
