Lee Daniel’s highly-anticipated new film “The Butler,” opens this Friday.

But not everyone is excited about it. The film tells the story of a butler who spent decades in the White House, serving President after President.

In a Shadow and Act interview with actor Harry Lennix, Lennix pulls zero punches; blasting media depictions of black men, and specifically Daniel’s script for “The Butler.”

From Shadow and Act:

…He “niggerfies” it. He “niggers” it up and he gives people these, stupid, luddite, antediluvian ideas about black people and their roles in the historical span in the White House and it becomes… well… historical porn. I refused.”

…

“Because it feeds into the great lie that is being perpetrated by the most important medium, the most powerful export that the United States has to offer which is entertainment. The most powerful tool that they have and it has kept us in a place, men in dresses and things, raping their daughters and things. While any sort of aberrant behavior happens in any community, it has become normative in black cinema that we are these bestial, deprived people, and I refuse to play with that.”

Read more at Shadow and Act

 

What are your thoughts on the depictions of black men in the media?

Are directors like Lee Daniel’s feeding into a dehumanizing, degrading status quo?

Will you see The Butler?