Actor Anthony Mackie was recently called out for controversial statements made during an interview with TheGrio regarding Black men who have dreadlocks, with an overwhelming amount of African-Americans taking offense to his summation that Black men with dreads should expect to be profiled by police. The statement in question is as follows:
"Like my nephew wanted to grow dreadlocks. I'm like fine, I'll sit you down and I'll watch 'The First 48′ with you and everybody you see on that show, that's doing something wrong, they're black dudes with dreadlocks. So, do you want to be seen as part of the problem or do you want to be an individual?"
Mackie was soon called a "house negro," and "c**n" for his statement and is now claiming TheGrio purposefully edited his interview to make it appear as if he himself believed men with dreads are more prone to commit crimes, when he intended to say police will be quicker to profile a black man who has dreads, a difference he wanted to make clear in a second interview with EURweb.
TheGrio has since responded saying they stand behind the original story and their Entertainment Editor, Chris Witherspoon, who conducted the interview. They also posted an unedited version of the interview to prove their editing didn't skew Mackie's statements one bit.
Do you agree that Black men with dreadlocks are more likely to be profiled than Black men with other hairstyles? Sound off below.
Source: TheGrio
Image: SplashNews
