Tyler Perry is under fire for assembling an all-white cast for his Atlanta filmed TLC series Too Close to Home, a backlash that the film producer now calls “reverse racism.”
As Too Close to Home is preparing for their first episode of its second season on January 4th, Tyler Perry called out people on social media who were bashing his casting choice.
“That’s totally reverse racism because it was coming from African-American people,” said Perry in an interview Friday with the Associated Press. “I don’t know if it was because they thought I should only be giving jobs to black people. Well, I think that’s ridiculous. If you look at the hundreds of black people I’ve given jobs to and even the ones I’ve made millionaires, people of color, I just think it’s unfair.”
Tyler Perry has directed dozens of films and created several TV shows, which for the most part, had a large African-American casts. But Tyler Perry is looking at creating more projects for a wider audience.
“I know that world very well,” said Perry. “The same stories I’m relating to and telling, it could be anyone black or white. I’m not trying to the shine a light on a certain stereotype or certain people in a trailer park. It’s my own experiences from having spent time and sleeping there.”
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