Black-ish and #blackaf creator, Kenya Barris expressed his political views at the American Black Film Festival on Saturday.
What We Know:
- The American Black Film Festival is an independent film festival that focuses primarily on Black film. The virtual three-day panel was launched in response to COVID-19 on Friday (Aug. 21) and featured many notable speakers.
- On Saturday, Kenya Barris talked with moderator Angela Rye about his success with his hit television series black-ish, which generated two spin-offs, grown-ish and mixed-ish, and the recent Netflix original series #blackAF.
- During the conversation, he talked about his life on and off the television set. In the interview, he speaks about the current political climate, “I think this is the only time in my life that I’ve actually had writer’s block. There’s so much going on right now. People are like, ‘You’re probably writing so much in the house.’ It’s such a challenging time…”
- In the ABFF conversation, Barris went on to talk about his difficulty releasing certain episodes of black-ish. Difficult episodes about police brutality and white supremacy were shelved under ABC studios.
- Kenya Barris also expressed his beliefs about the looming election. The television and film writer believes that Election day should be a national holiday to allow all people equal opportunity to go out and vote. He went on to condemn the common practice in the United States to make felons ineligible to vote.
“You want us as Black Americans to participate in your democracy, even though democracy doesn’t always participate in us. But you’re not going to at least let us have a day off, and we need our jobs more than most, to go and participate in your democracy?”
Kenya Barris (American Black Film Festival)
Kenya Barris continues to be a voice for Black Americans through his work and conversation. The writer has new projects on the way including Coming to America 2 and a Juneteenth musical with Pharrell Williams for Netflix.
