"Could you give us an example?", Walt hears you ask. Certainly. Meet Franck Sylvestre and his friend, who starred in a show called "L'incroyable secret de barbe noire" ("The Incredible Secret of Blackbeard") which was performed in a suburb of Montréal last year... just once.
M Sylvestre's show was included in the municipality's Black History Month schedule, but was cancelled because some Forces for Good in the community found it racist -- totally unacceptable! Imagine that!
A "civil rights" group telling named The Red Coalition -- how's that for full disclosure? -- called for further performances of the theatre piece to be cancelled, arguing that the unnamed puppet [At least he wasn't called "Sambo". Ed.] was an example of "anti-Black racism and reminiscent of blackface minstrel shows — performances intended to mock Black people."
The Red Coalition's director, Alain Babineau, tweeted that M Sylvestre's play was a "drop of systemic racism" and suggested M Sylvestre was a "sellout" in the service of white people. Franck Sylvestre is black (or "Black", if you prefer) by the way, a native of Martinique, a French possession [not "colony", shurely. Ed.] in the Caribbean.
Yesterday M Sylvestre has filed a lawsuit against M Babineau, alleging that he made unreasonable claims about the puppet, which have damaged his career in the theatre. According to the statement of claim, M Babineau "unreasonably associated the plaintiff and his puppet with racism, with the submission of Black people to white people and even white supremacism and the dehumanization of Black people."
It goes on to call the criticism an attack on Sylvestre's reputation, and an attempt "to expose him to the hatred and contempt of the public in general and the Black community in particular."
At a presser yesterday, M Sylvestre's lawyer said the puppet is based on his client's own appearance and that there's nothing racist about the show.
He said it is not defamatory to describe actual racist comments as racist, but associating "someone who is clearly not racist, with a show that is clearly not racist" with racism is defamatory.
"It's an issue of freedom of artistic expression," the lawayer added. "If every representation of a Black person that doesn't please M Babineau and others becomes blackface, becomes the subject of calls for censorship, that limits my client's freedom of artistic expression and, potentially, that of other artists."
Indeed. If you were a juror, would you find for M Sylvestre, or do you believe M Babineau was doing the only decent and woke thing by calling out an expression of anti-black racism which in today's progressive society is... wait for it... complete unacceptable.
Note from Ed.: We contacted the Prime Minister of All Canuckistan, Blackie McBlackface, for comment, but have received no response.
