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Topic: Delaware Supreme Court overturns cinema ruling
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Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi
Posts: 215
Registered: Apr 2004
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posted 03-02-2011 10:12 PM
Delaware Supreme Court overturns cinema ruling
Source: delawareonline.com
quote:
The Delaware Supreme Court overturned a decision by the state Human Relations Commission that the manager of a Dover cinema was racist when he used a "condescending tone" in telling a crowd of largely black patrons viewing a Tyler Perry movie to silence their cell phones and remain quiet.
The commission also ordered the Carmike 14 Theater to pay nearly $80,000 for violating the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law after it determined the October 2007 announcement -- which was not regularly made in that way in other theaters -- "insulted, humiliated and demeaned" patrons in that manager David Stewart had singled out a black audience at a "minority-themed" movie.
Court papers note that extra security also was brought in that night and guards were double-checking ticket stubs as audience members entered, which the plaintiffs said further added to the humiliation.
The Supreme Court, however, tossed out that finding and the fine late last week, ruling there was no racist language in the announcement, no specific group was singled out and the non-racial explanation for the announcement -- that it was part of a since-discontinued company policy at sold-out shows to ensure that all patrons would enjoy the movie -- was reasonable.
The court also noted that the then-director of the state Office of Human Relations was in the crowd that night, announced to the theater that she was offended and organized patrons to file the complaint with the Human Relations Commission.
The incident happened Oct. 12, 2007, at the sold-out 7:15 p.m. showing of the movie "Why Did I Get Married?" where the cinema was showing the picture in three theaters simultaneously.
The warning about cell phones was shown on the screen and then was delivered in person in the largest of the three auditoriums by Stewart, according to court papers. Some patrons later said Stewart's tone "was offensive and condescending, as if he were speaking to children." And because the crowd, which had been well-behaved to that point, was "90 to 95 percent" black, some felt it was racist because it implied that blacks did not know how to behave in a movie theater.
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Brad Miller
Administrator
Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
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posted 03-02-2011 10:59 PM
Well lets see now.
The last Tyler Perry movie on 35mm that I covered a projectionist shift a couple of years ago was a 99% black crowd. Hilarity did not ensue.
Issue #1 that shift. The people in the audience were constantly talking. Literally, they really would not shut up. Other audience members were getting outraged and started threatening each other. This...surprise...turned into violence.
Issue #2 that shift. One guy attacked another guy because he thought he was "looking at his girlfriend" (who was by the way, fully clothed and not suggestive or anything). The guy picks up a table (dinner theater) and attacks the "looker" with it. I saw the entire incident from the booth because it happened just before the movie started when I was threading the projector. I radio'd to the manager on duty to alert him. The manager and 2 rent-a-cops raced to the auditorium only to be attacked by this guy, and then another bystander for, you guessed it, "being racist" because they came into the "black auditorium".
Issue #3 that shift. Another show some sort of verbal argument ensued. Nobody knows what over. A knife was presented as a threat, then the other guy pulls a gun. The rent-a-cop ended up threatening the guy with the gun by pulling his gun on him for the safety of the guy with the knife. This happened in the lobby, I didn't witness it.
The fact remains, these issues only happen when Tyler Perry movies are played. Used to it was Spike Lee movies, but it is now predominately Tyler Perry movies. I'm NOT being racist, I am simply reporting fact. This sort of behavior sadly goes back as far as I can remember.
Back in college I was running some Spike Lee movie with the fader at 10. It was insanely loud, but the crowd literally wouldn't be quiet to hear the movie. It wasn't that the movie was so funny they couldn't stop laughing, they were too busy "talking to the screen"! A few members of the crowd ended up trying to break into the booth because they thought the theater was being racist by not playing the movie loud enough to be heard. The manager got physically hurt that night.
At a different location a couple of Tyler Perry movies ago, a theater we service had a complaint filed against them for racism. It seems there was a woman who was outraged that the theater would put up metal detectors at the entrance of "the black people auditorium". Ummm not quite ma'am...those are 3D glasses theft sensors. This is the 3D auditorium. It is the biggest auditorium in the complex, and the only one equipped to run 3D movies. The fact this Tyler Perry movie is doing such huge business warranted it to be in the largest auditorium. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
There is no racism in any of this. Any racism is fabricated in the offended party's mind, and it only seems to take one "offended" person to fire up the entire crowd.
Now if you want some funny facts on Tyler Perry movies, the dinner theater always, without fail, runs out of chicken. Fact! ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 04-19-2011 02:34 PM
quote: Ed Alvarado
And how am i a racist im MEXICAN! we are in the same boat but if you find this to be an issue i have no problem refunding the tickets.
After 5 years of living in New York City I know that argument would fall on deaf ears to an African American playing the race card and acting like even bigger bigot than the person he is accusing of racism. Makes no difference being Mexican either. Might as well be "white." Anthropologically speaking, Hispanics are Caucasian. Certain medical forms, census forms, etc. even list choices under race "Hispanic White" and "Non-Hispanic White."
If you're not a member of an "offended" person's minority/special interest group it doesn't make any difference what sort of status you have as member of another minority/special interest group. You're still seen as an enemy, outsider or just someone to take advantage of in an emotional situation.
Every flavor of bigotry is rampant in New York City simply because so many people with different racial, ethic, religious and class backgrounds are crammed together.
I have seen black people act "racist" against other black people, based on other factors (lightness/darkness of skin, nationality, mixed race, etc.). Latinos can take sides against each other if their blood is Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or European Spanish. Same thing goes on with Asian people with Japanese versus Korean versus Chinese, etc.
White people have a very long history of discriminating against other white people. The terms "honky" or "cracker" never had much of an effect on us. But throw out some slurs more specific to a white person's ethnicity (like Limey, Mick, Kraut, Frog, Wop, Polack, etc.) and that could get someone in serious trouble particularly if he was dropping the slurs among a crowd of those particular people. Most White people don't identify with groups of people based solely on race. But nationality and religious affiliation matter. Social class and political affiliation matter as well. Jessie Jackson cost himself any chance of getting a party nomination for President with his "hymie-town" remark about New York City. Jews may not have been rioting in the streets about it, but they were angry about it nonetheless.
Anyway, I'm glad I'm not into Tyler Perry movies at all. I hate disruptive behavior in movie theaters enough as it is without seeing it amped up to another level.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 04-21-2011 11:45 AM
quote: Mike Blakesley
They DO?! I'm going to have to start throwing stuff at the TV whenever an Irish Catholic joke is performed.
It depends on the location. Cities like New York in particular. If I mouth off at someone in an Italian dominated neighborhood and throw out some Italian oriented slurs with it I could get my teeth kicked down my throat. There is more tension there about who you should choose as friends, where you should work or who you should date based on your religious and ethnic background. A Catholic family usually would prefer their daughter to date a boy who was Catholic rather than Jewish, Baptist, etc.
The farther west you go in America, or the farther you travel away from old American cities, attitudes change. Here in Lawton most people (white or not) just consider themselves "American" instead of some hyphenate like "Irish-American," "Italian-American," etc. That stuff doesn't matter as much. I don't hear the ethnic slurs out here in Oklahoma nearly as much as I did in New York City. We're too integrated for groups of people to take sides against other groups based on who is Italian or Irish or German, etc. Our blood lines are too mixed for very many of us to say "I'm Irish" or whatever. Most Americans are Heinz 57 mutts. Religious affiliation is still important in Middle America. We can take jokes about religious denominations. But then that whole "would let your daughter date one of those guys" thing might still be a sticking point.
I don't know about the rest of Oklahoma, but there is a lot of inter-racial dating and marriage going on here. Maybe some of that is because of the military's influence on the area. It could just be changing attitudes. There's definitely a lot more shutting up going on when it comes to people telling racial jokes. Tell a black joke and you may piss off some white guy whose wife is black.
But, yeah, it would be nice for everyone to grow a thicker skin and a sense of humor about this stuff. In the end, I think some of the people who are offended are really not as offended as they are pretending to be and merely trying to take advantage of a situation, either to draw attention (like media attention) or get something for nothing. I think both of those angles were being played at that Carmike 14 site in Delaware.
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