Faizon Love reaches settlement with Universal over race discrimination

Racism Score: 4.8

Faizon Love was not feeling the love. Love filed a race discrimination lawsuit over the poster for the movie Couples Retreat. Love and Universal Pictures “reached an amicable agreement” in the dispute.

Love accused Universal Pictures of race discrimination because they removed him and and co-star, Kali Hawk, who played his girlfriend in the movie. They played the only non-white couple in the movie.

Uncoincidentally, Love and Hawk were the only ones removed from the poster when the movie opened overseas.

The removal was an intentional act and a poor decision. To be clear, this was not a lapse in judgment. The poster decision-makers made a conscientious decision to remove the only Black couple, albeit to unclutter the poster. Wrong couple to remove!

This type of poster white washing is a trend overseas and needs to be rectified.

Look at this other intentional act in a Star Wars poster. Finn, played by John Boyega who is Black was removed in the China poster (right side).

As the saying goes, once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a trend and just their behavior. Hopefully, Love’s settlement sends a message that this type of discrimination is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.