January 21, 2002

Subject: Protest "Black Hawk Down"

Call a picket line at your local theater today!

WHY ARE WE CALLING FOR PROTESTS AND BOYCOTTS AGAINST “BLACK HAWK DOWN”?

This movie is a blatantly racist attempt to create support among the U.S. public for a new war against Somalia. According to the Bush Administration, Somalia is at the top of the Pentagon’s list of countries to be the next major target of the so-called “war against terrorism.”

In his review of “Black Hawk Down,” New York Times movie reviewer Elvis Mitchell wrote that the movie “converts the Somalis into a pack of snarling dark-skinned beasts ? it reeks of glumly staged racism.”

What actually happened in Somalia in 1992-93?

On December 12, 1992, the U.S. sent 28,000 soldiers into Somalia under the cover of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) in what they said was a “humanitarian mission? to bring food to starving people. The invasion came when a several-year drought that had taken tens of thousands of lives was actually abating. At the time, the evening news showed images of thousands of starving Somalis. What people didn’t see was U.S. troops