A veteran Missouri state senator is calling on St. Louis-area residents to boycott a new movie called “SuperFly”, alleging it glorifies sex, murder and drug dealing.
State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed speaks at the Missouri Capitol on January 23, 2018 (file photo courtesy of Missouri Senate photographer Harrison Sweazea]
State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, the Senate Minority Caucus Whip, led a protest Friday afternoon outside the Chase Park Plaza Cinemas in St. Louis.
“The last thing we need in our city is a movie perpetuating and glorifying again, drugs, gangs and violence,” Nasheed says.
Senator Nasheed is calling on the theatre to remove the film and she’s urging young people to watch movies that will give them a sense of hope and pride.
She says people should be working to end violence in the Gateway City, not glorifying it.
“SuperFly exemplifies everything that’s wrong within the African-American community,” says Nasheed. “And so what we’re saying is enough is enough.”
Nasheed and some clergy members involved with the “Concerned Citizens Coalition” led Friday’s protest outside the theatre, which is located at Lindell and Kingshighway in the Central West End.
“When I turn on the news (in St. Louis) I hear a story about a young man or a young woman that was gunned down in the streets of the city of St. Louis, and we have a gang problem that no one’s really paying attention to,” Nasheed says.
St. Louis Police spokeswoman Schron Jackson tells Missourinet there were 205 homicides in St. Louis in 2017, and there were 188 in 2016.
The Chase Park Plaza Cinemas management team has not responded to Missourinet’s request for comment yet.
The theatre website indicates “SuperFly” is being shown five times a day at the Chase Park Plaza Cinemas.
Click here to listen to the full interview between Missourinet news director Brian Hauswirth and State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, which was recorded on June 22, 2018:
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