Saturday, August 15, 2015

No H8? Takei Joins Discussion Panel on Watts Riots 50 years later

Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival will be hosting a one-time screening of "Bridging the Divide" today (August 12th)

Here is a description of the event and a summary of the movie:

BRIDGING THE DIVIDE tells the story of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, the first African American mayor elected in a major American city with an overwhelmingly white majority. Released on the fiftieth anniversary of the Watts Riot, the film brings into sharp focus issues of police brutality in minority communities and the challenges of police reform. It is the story of the pressures which face our cities, the politics of race, and the complexities of coalitions in a changing America. Narrated by Alfre Woodard, and produced by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Lyn Goldfarb and Emmy Award-winner Alison Sotomayor.

George Takei (Xaser Nixeus)
TV actor and homosexual activist George Takei will be joining an after-screening discussion.

Takei worked on the Tom Bradley for Mayor campaign. Bradley would win his second run for LA Mayor, and preside over the city as the first African-American mayor, despite the still overwhelmingly white majority in the city.

Still, the LA Jewish Festival wants to invite Takei to speak at a forum about civil rights, especially in connection with African-Americans, when a few months ago he slurred a high-ranking jurist, Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as "a clown in black-face".

For a man who has uttered numerous offensive and intolerant comments in his public life, why would the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival want to invite such a person to participate in a question and answer forum on race?

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