Netflix Gets Kicked to the Curb by CEMOTAP for Demeaning "Good Times" Reboot
Approximately 100 people participated in the CEMOTAP led protest against Netflix on June 5.
CEMOTAP (Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People) is waging war against “Netflix A Good Times Reboot.” Supposedly based on the original Good Times TV series, this animated version is nothing like the original. Moreover, it is insulting, demeaning and totally absurd – portraying negative and stereotypical images of Blacks.
CEMOTAP Co-chairs James C. McIntosh, M.D. and Betty J. Dopson, have held several zoom meetings calling “all Africans” to cancel subscriptions with Netflix and only use the bootleg version if you must.
MacIntosh and Dopson detailed their criticisms in an open letter to Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos. Here are some of their criticisms.
“Black people are rude, crude, lewd and hypersexual. Portraying a bug-eyed dog watching a man with the [physical] profile of a gorilla having sex with a Black woman doggy style while slapping her bottom is not funny. It is not satire, it is ridicule. Portraying the Black teacher as an alcoholic (sipping from her flask), nicotine addict (cigarettes in her pocket), (pedophile), making sexually loaded comments about one of her students (a child) is not funny. Portraying Harriet Tubman having sex with Gwyneth Paltrow as McFarlane did in earlier cartoons is not satire. It is ridicule, and the recurrence of a sick McFarlane theme,” CEMOTAP's letter says.
See the open letter to Sarandos here.
Support has come from various media and activists across the country. Brother Lagrand of CEMOTAP West said “this is by design and set up as a paragroup that can be eliminated.”
Brother Kwabena of Clear the Airwaves said, “This is the worst depiction of African people ever put out there.”
On June 5, CEMOTAP demonstrated in front of the New York Netflix corporate headquarters at 888 Broadway. Approximately 100 people came out to show their support with banners and handouts.
In the spirit of Sankofa, in order to move to the future, you must look to the past. This is exactly what Dr. MacIntosh did when he pointed out what happened in 1915 when Hollywood’s “Birth of a Nation” was released. We had the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan and Red Summer of 1919 in which more Black people were lynched in America than in any other year of its history.
Media portrayals and their influence are just as important now, if not more so, than it was in the early 1900s.. Put on your armor and join the battle honoring our ancestors’ struggles and show the younger generation how we fight.
For more information go to CEMOTAP’s Facebook page.
Michael Howard contributed to the reporting for this article.