COMMENTARY
Maybe Morgan Freeman was pandering for media attention and Internet clicks with his comment that President Barack Obama is not really America’s first African American or black President. According to Freeman, President Obama is America’s first mixed-race President. SOURCE: YAHOO’S MOVIES LINK: http://movies.yahoo.com/news/morgan-freeman-obama-not-americas-first-black-president-152604131.html
Freeman, of course, who is presumably African American himself, portrayed a president in “Deep Impact” the 1998 film release of Paramount and Dream Works. SOURCE: IMDb LINK: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120647/
The film was very profitable. It grossed $180 Million on a production budget of $75 Million. So everybody including Freeman made some pocket change from his fictitious portrayal of the President.
And, presumably, this is what Freeman and his handlers were seeking by having him take a swipe at President Obama. Afterall, every click counts!
Thankfully, Freeman was not the first African American actor to portray the President. That credit goes to Sammy Davis, Jr. in the 1933 release of “Rufus Jones for President.” SOURCE: WIKI LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_president_in_popular_culture_(United_States) A number of other actors also preceded Freeman in the role.
So Mr. Freeman, while your sop about President Obama borders on nonsense, at least it made us do some work and dig up some pop culture and history.
75 years after
Cover via Amazon
a black president emanated from the mind of a creative film writer, fiction became reality. America did indeed elect its first black president.
Related articles
- Morgan Freeman: Obama’s not our first black president (marquee.blogs.cnn.com)
- Morgan Freeman: ‘Obama’s Not America’s First Black President’ (newsbusters.org)
- Morgan Freeman: Obama ‘not first black president’ (lfpress.com)
- Freeman: Obama not first black president (politico.com)
- Morgan Freeman on President Obama: He’s Not the First Black President (clutchmagonline.com)
