Filmmaker Tyler Perry said he was troubled when he first heard of the movement to defund the police.
“I thought, OK, this is going to be weaponized in this political year. I completely thought that that was happening, and that’s exactly what’s happened. It’s been weaponized,” Perry told Anderson Cooper in July. “But I did some research and what I would challenge people to do is do research and find out what it means.”
The writer, director, producer, actor and philanthropist spoke with Cooper about the state of race in America following the killing of George Floyd, when protests erupted nationwide.
Now, more than six months since Floyd’s death and on the heels of a divisive election, Perry’s insights into systemic racism and police reform remain topical as a New Year approaches in a politically polarized country.
In the wake of Floyd’s death, Perry said he was inspired when people of all backgrounds galvanized together to protest injustice, but feared the message of police reform was being hijacked.
“Now you’ve got to understand this, I am not for taking money from the police department. I think we need more police. My studio is in a neighborhood where I think we need police,” he said. “But we don’t need police that are undertrained.”
He spoke to Cooper from the site of Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, one of the largest movie production facilities in the country and the first ever to be fully owned by an African American. It’s built on the site of a former Confederate Army base.
Perry, a prolific artist known for breaking barriers in Hollywood, pointed to the powerful significance of the studio’s location as controversy ensues nationwide over the historical value of Confederate monuments.
“To be on this land that was once a Confederate Army base, I mean think about the poetic justice in that, where there were Confederate soldiers plotting and planning strategy on how to keep Negroes enslaved and now that land is owned by a Negro,” he said. “That for me is beyond poetic justice.”
Perry said streets on the complex that were named after Confederate generals will be changed to honor his ancestors.
To watch the full interview go to cnn.com/fullcircle.
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