American Sniper deemed to scary by U of Michigan Students
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Responding to pressure from a group of students and complainers that reportedly numbered fewer than 300, the University of Michigan decided Tuesday to cancel a screening of “American Sniper,” a film dramatizing the career of U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle.
The university’s Center for Campus Involvement released a statement explaining its quick decision, stating the “impact of the content was harmful, and made students feel unsafe and unwelcomed at our program,” according to The College Fix. The movie had been slated for a Friday screening.
The protest originated with a letter to the university from “Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) and Muslim students on campus,” according to the Fix. The group accuses the university of sanctioning anti-Muslim “propaganda” by showing the film.
“Chris Kyle was a racist who took a disturbing stance on murdering Iraqi civilians,” the collective letter stated. “Middle Eastern characters in the film are not lent an ounce of humanity and watching this movie is provocative and unsafe to MENA and Muslim students who are too often reminded of how little the media and world values their lives.
“The University of Michigan should not participate in further perpetuating these negative and misleading stereotypes.”
Since canceling the movie, the university has fielded waves of petitions calling for its reinstatement.
“If the University prevents a movie like this from being shown, it promotes intolerance and stifles dialogue and debate on the subject and goes directly against the atmosphere UMix [uM’s student union] purports to provide,” read a petition that reportedly made the rounds on campus Wednesday. “As adults at a public university, we should have the option to view this movie if we so choose and have the opportunity to engage on the topics it presents to come to our own conclusions on the subjects. Students should be trusted to interact responsibly on a movie no different than any other film depicting the lives of the troops at war, such as Saving Private Ryan.”
The university responded by agreeing to reschedule the screening for a different on-campus venue at a later date, accompanied by “an appropriate educational panel discussion.”
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Topic already exists in politics forum.
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Yeah the stuff going on in the middle east really lends them an ounce of humanity all right.
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