Billionaire entertainment and media mogul Tyler Perry is using his voice and platform to condemn the racial profiling allegedly conducted by Atlanta’s Clayton County Police Department (CCPD) toward fellow celebrity names Eric André and Clayton English.
More broadly, Perry’s early June op-ed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reportedly argued that “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.”
Adding context, the Mea Culpa filmmaker claimed that “Of the hundreds of passengers stopped by CCPD’s special airport drug unit in the months between when André and English were stopped, a majority (56%) were Black, while only 8% of that airport’s domestic air travelers are Black.”
What Prompted Perry’s Op-Ed?
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Perry was one of multiple Hollywood names who filed a “friend-of-the-court brief” within André and English’s racial discrimination lawsuit. The plaintiffs claimed they were separately and unlawfully targeted by authorities at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
In his op-ed, Perry claimed André and English were “steps from boarding their flights” when plain-clothed CCPD officers stopped them on the jet bridges. Notably, the alleged profiling incidents of André and English happened months apart. Also, both men had been cleared by the TSA before reaching their gates.
Perry argued that the men were stopped because of “the color of their skin.”
The filmmaker alleged that “officers are allowed to seize any property they claim is involved in a crime, including cash.” He further claimed that “in the months between when André and English were stopped, CCPD raked in close to $1 million from travelers who never were charged with any crime.”
“… 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,” Perry penned. “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.”
