Tyler Perry Writes A Powerful Open Letter About Black Men Being Racially Profiled: 'Flying While Black Shouldn’t Be A Crime'
Tyler Perry is supporting the fight against racial discrimination.
In October 2022, comedians Eric André and Clayton English filed a lawsuit against the Clayton County Police Department for racial profiling at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
The lawsuit is a response to a reported disturbing trend of unwarranted and discriminatory searches by law enforcement officers, targeting Black individuals under the guise of random drug searches.
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In April 2021, André took to Twitter to express his outrage about the alleged incident.
"I was just racially profiled by two plain clothes Atlanta PD police in @Delta terminal T3 at the Atlanta airport. They stopped me on the way down the bridge to the plane for a 'random' search and asked if they could search me for drugs," he said. "I told them no. Be careful."
According to 'Atlanta Black Star,' Perry, 54, has been vocal in his support of André and English's lawsuit.
In a powerful op-ed published in the 'Atlanta Journal-Constitution,' Perry wrote, "Law enforcement agencies engaging in racial profiling and trying to hide the truth about it is nothing new in this country. Still, each time it happens, we are reminded that, as Black people, we are viewed - even by our own government - as less worthy of respect and constitutional protection than our white friends, neighbors, and colleagues."
He continued: "And when we are singled out by police, the very officials who have sworn to protect us, we are faced with the very real horrors of what can and all too often does go wrong when police officers interact with Black people."
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Many other Black actors and creatives from the entertainment industry are extending their support of the comics, including Sterling K. Brown, Michael Ealy, Jamie Foxx, Taraji P. Henson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Jodie Turner-Smith, amongst others.
Together, they are calling for an end to the inappropriate racial discrimination.
"Every act of racial discrimination is a broken promise, an affront to our dignity, an insult to Atlanta's history, and a vestige of a history that America must leave behind," Perry wrote. "This must stop."
