Well, this is interesting. Here’s the headline in The New York Post:
Will Smith pulls production of new movie ‘Emancipation’ from Georgia over voting law
Which is to say the well-regarded actor, an African-American, has deliberately taken sides with President Joe Biden and Georgia’s famous black activist, the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams. Both the left-wing Biden and Abrams have denounced the same Georgia voter law, in Biden’s case comparing it to Jim Crow laws. (You know – the segregationist Jim Crow laws that were written and enforced by the Democratic Party in decades past.)
One has to wonder if actor Smith even bothered to read the Georgia law. Or if he even bothered to consult with a certain group of black clergy in Georgia. That group would be called the Conservative Clergy of Color. Here’s the headline from their website:
Conservative Clergy of Color Call Out Biden and Abrams for “Lies” about Georgia Election Integrity Act of 2021
The statement from the black Georgia clergy says this, bold print supplied:
“The ad specifically addresses unfounded criticisms of the law made by President Joe Biden and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, alleging that their disinformation campaign is “devastating” minority-owned small businesses in Atlanta by encouraging boycotts and other forms of economic retribution against the state. Recently, Major League Baseball decided to relocate the 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver, Colorado – a move that is projected to cost the region around $100 million in potential business.
‘Biden and Abrams keep saying the Election Integrity Act is worse than Jim Crow, which is an insult to the millions of Black Americans,’ said Bishop Aubrey Shines, founder of Glory to God Ministries and a founding member of Conservative Clergy of Color. ‘The truth is that this law actually expands access to the ballot box, while also taking common-sense steps to protect the sanctity of every legal vote. We believe that it should be easy to vote and hard to cheat and the Georgia Integrity Act makes that possible for all voters,’ he concluded.
Contrary to the left’s rhetoric, the Georgia Election Act of 2021 allows for expanded early voting hours and additional early voting options on weekends, including Sundays. It also authorizes absentee ballot drop boxes for the first time, turning what had been a temporary measure with serious chain of custody violations adopted in the midst of a deadly pandemic into a permanent feature of Georgia’s elections.
Claims that voter ID requirements are racially discriminatory are also lies promoted by Biden and Abrams, since the Georgia Election Integrity Act of 2021 establishes a wide variety of legitimate forms of identification, including utility bills. Previously, absentee ballots could only be authenticated through signature matching, a laborious and inherently subjective process that invited weaknesses in the system.”
Got all that? Black Georgia clergy are decidedly supportive of the Georgia law precisely because it:
- Allows for expanded early voting hours and additional early voting options on weekends, including Sundays.
- Authorizes absentee ballot drop boxes for the first time, turning what had been a temporary measure with serious chain of custody violations adopted in the midst of a deadly pandemic into a permanent feature of Georgia’s elections.
- Establishes a wide variety of legitimate forms of identification, including utility bills.
As with any major film, Will Smith’s movie was undoubtedly poised to bring all kinds of income to the many Georgia minority businesses Just like that All-Star Game was poised to do – that being the baseball classic that was abruptly moved by Major League Baseball from Atlanta to Denver, a city with an over 70% white population as opposed to majority black Atlanta.
So what do we have here? We have a major movie star and film worker deliberately giving the proverbial middle finger to the African-American community of Georgia.
And oh yes? What is the Smith movie about? It is described in The New York Post as “a thriller about a runaway slave.”
To borrow an old line from no less than Joe Biden? It certainly sounds like Will Smith has joined forces with all those big corporations and the MLB to say to minority Georgia businesses that they are collectively about “putting y’all back in chains” – the chains of economic insecurity that will be a direct result of the Georgia boycott.
Shameful. And in the case of the very talented and much-hailed “nice guy” Will Smith, a serious disappointment.
