16214: Morgan Freeman Practices Free Speech.

The New York Post reported on a Morgan Freeman interview with The Sunday Times, wherein the iconic actor declared “Black History Month” and “African American” are insulting to him. It’s hardly the first time Freeman has expressed such views—and news sources are arguably misinterpreting and sensationalizing his comments out of context.

 

Yet imagine if Freeman learned how Adland and advertisers disrespect the annual celebration with royalty-free stock photography and crumbs—or that he regularly appears in BHM promotions touting Black movies.

Morgan Freeman calls ‘Black History Month’ and ‘African-American’ terms an ‘insult’

 

By Jack Hobbs

 

Morgan Freeman slammed the terms “Black History Month” and “African American” on Saturday claiming that both terms were an “insult.”

 

The 85-year-old actor told The Sunday Times the annual observance — which takes place every February and recognizes the cultural achievement of black people — has a negative connotation to him and that it ‘regulates’ his culture to just 4 weeks.

 

“Two things I can say publicly that I do not like,” said the “Million Dollar Baby” star. “Black History Month is an insult. You’re going to relegate my history to a month?”

 

“Also ‘African-American’ is an insult. I don’t subscribe to that title,” continued Freeman. “Black people have had different titles all the way back to the n-word and I do not know how these things get such a grip, but everyone uses ‘African-American.’ What does it really mean?”

 

Last year, Freeman was slammed for narrating the FIFA World Cup opening segment, titled “The Calling,” at Al-Bayt Stadium in Doha amid ongoing allegations of human rights abuse in the Middle East.

 

Several online critics slammed Freeman’s involvement.

 

“For a man who played Nelson Mandela — who knew better than anyone the impact and importance of isolation on a country and its success on the ground to change that nation’s policy,” tweeted one angry fan. “It is so disappointing to see #MorganFreeman take the money and support an oppressive regime.”

 

“Morgan Freeman is really determined to go to the deepest level of hell huh,” tweeted another person.

 

“Qatar out there with Morgan Freeman spitting words like unity/inclusion in an effort to promote tourism, and then not practicing it,” chimed in a commenter. “For all the ‘their country their rules’ crowd out there, sure. But then they don’t get to lie bout what they’re really about just for a cash grab.”

 

14162: Dirty Old Freeman…?

Advertising Age reported Translink, the Vancouver transit system, put the brakes on using Morgan Freeman as a voiceover for rider announcements after the iconic actor was hit with allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior. One odd sentence in the Ad Age story reads: “Freeman joins several others of his generation, including Charlie Rose, Kevin Spacey and Jeffrey Tambor, who have faced similar accusations.” Is sexual harassment now a generational issue?

Vancouver transit silences Visa’s Morgan Freeman campaign

By Adrianne Pasquarelli

Allegations of inappropriate behavior are already costing Morgan Freeman at least one business relationship. TransLink, the Vancouver transit system, said Thursday that it is pausing its collaboration with the actor, just one day after announcing that Freeman will voice rider announcements this summer.

Freeman’s TransLink announcements are part of an ad campaign with Visa Canada for its tap-to-pay offering.

“In light of information we’ve learned this morning of allegations regarding actor Morgan Freeman, TransLink has decided to pause his voice announcements as part of a Visa ad campaign on our transit system,” TransLink said in a statement, adding that it will discuss the matter further with Visa.

A Visa spokeswoman did not immediately comment on the company’s relationship with Freeman.

On Thursday morning, CNN reported allegations that Freeman engaged in inappropriate behavior, including making sexual comments about female employees and creating a toxic work environment at Revelations Entertainment, the company he runs with business partner Lori McCreary. Freeman joins several others of his generation, including Charlie Rose, Kevin Spacey and Jeffrey Tambor, who have faced similar accusations.

Freeman’s publicist did not respond to a request for comment.

Freeman’s well-recognized baritone is frequently heard in commercial voiceovers for brands including Visa. The actor also recently starred in a high-profile Super Bowl spot for Mtn Dew. He has served as the narrator for documentaries such as the Academy Award-winning “March of the Penguins” and hosts National Geographic’s “The Story of God.”

National Geographic did not respond to a request for comment.

Freeman’s Mtn Dew ad has not aired on TV since May 14, according to iSpot. A representative from PepsiCo, which owns the soda brand, confirmed that the talent rights for the ad expired.

Several spots in Visa’s “Everywhere you want to be” campaign that use Freeman’s voice, including “Party” and “Banana Boat,” are currently airing, according to iSpot. The actor is also voicing Visa’s FIFA World Cup campaign, which stars soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Two years ago, Freeman provided the voiceover for an ad in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. In the spot, he asks, “Our children are looking to us. What example will we set?”

Contributing: E.J. Schultz, Jeanine Poggi

13679: Driving Miss Annie, Part 2.

Annie the Chicken Queen traded in her $5 Boneless Wing Bash ride for a new set of wheels to hype her $5 Flavor Favorites—and she even upgraded with a chauffeur. Guess Morgan Freeman wasn’t available.

10644: Celebrity Political Spokesmen.

I’ll see your Clint Eastwood and raise you Samuel L. Jackson and Morgan Freeman.

5016: Black Presidents in U.S. History.

From The Los Angeles Times…

A black president? We’ve already had the pleasure

By Joel Stein

A lot of liberals say they’re not supporting Sen. Barack Obama in the presidential primaries because an African-American can’t carry the South in the general election -- which is a liberal’s clever way of saying that he won’t vote for a black person.

But, it seems, they’re wrong. Although Iowa and New Hampshire aren’t in the South, they are full of hicks, which is what rich liberals actually mean when they refer to “the South.”

You have to live among rich liberals to understand what they’re saying. You’ll never believe what they mean by “middle class.” They mean themselves.

America is ready for a black president because we’ve seen them before. Black presidents, in fact, have been our awesomest presidents ever: Morgan Freeman in “Deep Impact” and Dennis Haysbert in “24.” And their approval ratings -- box office grosses and Nielsen ratings, the only approval that matters in the U.S. -- have been huge. The Freeman and Haysbert administrations, which endured Carter-level challenges such as a comet headed toward Earth and working with Kiefer Sutherland, have specifically prepared us for Obama. Like him, they confront without being confrontational. They’re calm, earnest, utterly decent and way, way cooler than white presidents -- which is what I’m sure Joe Biden was trying to say when he called Obama “articulate” and “clean.” If only I had translated for him sooner.

If there is a choice between winning a culture war or a political war, take the cultural one. Sure, the blunt force of the law can make something happen quickly -- unless the law equivocates to make only three-fifths of something happen, or to just not ask and not tell -- but culture affects how people think, which is how real change occurs. You can only send the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Ark., so many times, but Norman Lear can make people see the absurdity of racism every week.

The creators of “24” were totally misguided in their reasoning for casting a black presidential candidate. They thought the threat of his assassination would up the stakes because it might spark a race war. But viewers didn’t care about his race. Haysbert knew by the second season that America was ready to elect a black president because white people would stop him on the street to say they wished he were the real president.

Obama is strikingly similar to Haysbert’s character, President David Palmer: Both were senators, both campaigned in their mid-40s and both deliver JFK-style speeches in a cool, jazz baritone. “I think we both have a similar approach to who and what we believe the president is. Barack doesn’t get angry. He’s pretty level. That’s how I portrayed President Palmer: as a man with control over his emotions and great intelligence,” Haysbert says.

In fact, it’s weird to imagine the two of them in the same room, as they were during a small fundraiser at which Obama pointed him out and said, “I see we have a former president in the room.”

Freeman, another Obama campaign contributor, was born in 1937 and grew up in Mississippi, never thinking we could possibly have a black president. But after 1998’s “Deep Impact,” Freeman says, white people told him, too, that they wished he were really president. “If you think of these roles and how the country reacted, you kind of get the notion that perhaps they could handle it,” he says. In fact, he started to sense that in 1984 -- when Jesse Jackson sought the Democratic nomination, and, more important, when Bill Cosby’s sitcom made him the highest paid entertainer in the country -- that we’d one day have a black president. Maybe one similar to the one he portrayed. “It remains to be seen if Barack Obama would be the same kind of president as Bob whatever-his-name-was,” Freeman says.

It’s not completely insane for America to have tested out, in fiction, the idea of a black commander in chief. Because, really, all presidents are fictional characters. Sure, the president has very tangible effects on some people: soldiers, Iraqis, welfare recipients, guys facing a prison sentence named Scooter.

But for the rest of us, the president primarily influences how we feel about the country. We love Ronald Reagan not just for helping end the Cold War but for smiling like a used-car salesman and convincing us that morning had broken. Haysbert, Freeman and Obama can do that without even smiling.

If you think about it, Barack Obama wouldn’t stand a chance if Geena Davis had been a little more compelling in “Commander in Chief.”