The latest Planet of Apes movie, War For The Planet of the Apes, is hitting theaters and there may be some racially coded messaging in the film. Screenshots and images from the film’s movie poster are being posted on social media, with questions about how the apes are being depicted. A lot of the scenes resemble recent Black Lives Matter protests, but the most provocative image depicts a monkey wearing a blue vest that is very similar to the vest that Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson wears in public.
This does not look like an accident and people are upset.
Looks like this year's planet of the apes has a @deray character in it. That blue vest. What they tryna say ? Lol pic.twitter.com/4QnORs9AcU
— 2pac Chopra ✨️ (@GUMPNxATLIEN) July 6, 2017
Does the new Planet of the Apes poster have racially coded messages?Notice the #BlackLivesMatter symbolism.Notice the ape with the blue vest pic.twitter.com/8dnr42OxjK
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) July 10, 2017
Any depiction or allusion of black people as apes is disgusting and racially insensitive no matter the context. The makers of this film are going to have a lot of explaining to do on what the intent here was because the optics are not good. I have not seen the film yet but at first glance, this is not ok.
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