Think Like a Man Banned
French fans looking to see a famed black movie are officially out of luck now that officials have banned the production over its “lack of diversity.” Think Like a Man, the box-office hit that zoomed past The Hunger Games and raked in $33 million in its opening weekend, will not be viewable by a French audience, reports GlobalVoice. A French writer for the site points out that France has a history of not playing black films that have done exceptionally well in America and instead only releases them on DVD. With that in mind, the writer points out France’s obvious problem with positive black messages. “Black actor and producer Tyler Perry’s movies are never scheduled in any French movie theaters or are only released in DVDs, even though he has been used to leading the U.S. box office, as with Why Did I Get Married? and For Colored Girls,” wrote the writer. “The French society acts hypocritically, when it refuses to show movies from black producers who earn millions from conveying a positive message to the African diaspora through their films.”
Furthermore Think Like a Man‘s predominantly black cast is a suspected factor for the film’s prohibition. “Surprising as it may be, the answer lies in the fact that the film [Think Like a Man] has an all-black cast, ” the writer continued. “French cinema is often pointed at for not fairly displaying all components of the country’s multiethnic population.”
The writer also noted that a recent film played in the country earned an award for an African actor but stopped short of being a turning point for this obvious racial imbalance.
In a similar diversity issue in the country, organizers of the first ever Miss Black France pageant where subjected to harsh criticism from people who dubbed it “stupid” and “dangerous” because of its exclusion of white women. “This logic is detrimental to the values of French society,” one critic wrote. “This initiative could be perceived as a hostile event that will further erode national unity,” said another.
No one associated with Think Like a Man has commented on the ban. –danielle canada
