Haitians Protesting FOX's How Stella Got Her Groove Back

New York, NY, September 2, 1998 -- "How Stella Got Her Groove Back connects Haiti and AIDS in a misleading manner," said Jocelyn McCalla, Executive Director of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights, "The reference to Haitians is offensive and should be removed immediately from the current release and from any subsequent releases."

Years ago, Haitians thought they had laid to rest the notion that AIDS and Haiti were synonymous. They petitioned the Federal Drug Administration and the Center for Disease Control to have their name removed from the list of high-risk groups. They held several demonstrations in the 1980s. In 1990 they held the largest demonstration in New York City since the heydays of the Civil Rights movement, when more than 70,000 people paralyzed New York City rush hour traffic for several hours.

The gratuitous reference inevitably popularizes a bias against people of Haitian origin and Haiti in particular. The danger is that the gross misinformation will be popularized in several languages and will not be limited to the US audience. It will find its way onto videos that will be stored in a home entertainment cabinet and viewed by generations to come, and kids of all ages, who may grow up with the idea that Haitians and Haiti are responsible for this so far incurable disease called AIDS.

Inexplicably and gratuitously this unfortunate notion has been revised in a popular African-American film. Therefore, the National Coalition for Haitian Rights urges African-Americans, people of Caribbean descent and all others to join in the call for removing the Haiti reference from the current release in theaters, demand that new edited versions of the film be immediately provided to the theatres so that the misinformation is no longer being propagated; and demand that any subsequent releases (video and international) be free of the reference to Haiti.

The National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization now celebrating its 16th year of advocacy on behalf of Haitians and Haitian-Americans in Haiti, the Caribbean and the United States. NCHR seeks to advance respect for human rights, the rule of law, and support for civil and democratic society in Haiti.

It is important that Haitians and their friends send letters to the filmmakers and distributors to urge that the offensive reference be deleted from the movie. Follow this hyperlink to find a sample letter together with the names and addresses of people who should be in a position to meet the demands.