There is a “stereotype” that African-American movie-goers tend to be more “vocal” during their film-watching experience. That if you were to say, check out a horror film, that the African-American portion of the crowd might be more likely to voice any particular moment of fear, shock, or amazement that the white viewers in the audience. Basically what I’m saying is people say black people are REAL LOUD during movies.

And apparently, back in 2007, a Delaware movie theater manager named David Stewart decided to put a preemptive stop to the possible madness before Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Get Married.” According to reports, he came in before the movie started to remind the crowd to turn off their cell-phones, stay quiet, and remain in their seats throughout the film. The almost solely black audience took offense to the reminder, claiming that he did not make the same request of other theaters during the night. Moviegoers claimed Stewart “was offensive and condescending, as if he were speaking to children,” and believed that he was implying that the black crowd didn’t know how to behave in a movie theater. They also discussed the fact that the last time Stewart had taken such a precaution was on Halloween, when the audience was almost exclusively made up of teenagers.

Although he did not use offensive language, the court justices recognized that he singled out the black crowd and therefore awarded $1,500 to each of the plantiffs in the case, and fined the theater an additional $25,000 for court and lawyers fees.

What do you think… was it racist?