Plan B Forum

Interviewer: How are we going to get rid of racism?

Morgan Freeman: Stop talking about it.

Interviewer: How are we going to get rid of racism?

Morgan Freeman: Stop pointing out that there are racial differences.

Lord Jim wrote:I don't think anyone would mistake Morgan Freeman for an "Uncle Tom"

Scooter wrote:

Lord Jim wrote:I don't think anyone would mistake Morgan Freeman for an "Uncle Tom"

I would never have suggested that. Nevertheless, his vantage point of racism is one that comes from being in a position of great power, wealth and privilege. Someone who has been denied a job, housing, credit, or who has been screwed over by the justice system because of racism, can't afford to "stop talking about it".

Early life

Morgan Freeman was born [June 1, 1937] in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of Mayme Edna (née Revere), a teacher,[2] and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a barber who died April 27, 1961, from cirrhosis. He has three older siblings. Freeman was sent as an infant to his paternal grandmother in Charleston, Mississippi.[3][4][5] His family moved frequently during his childhood, living in Greenwood, Mississippi; Gary, Indiana; and finally Chicago, Illinois.[5] Freeman made his acting debut at age 9, playing the lead role in a school play. He then attended Broad Street High School, later named Threadgill Elementary School, in Mississippi. At age 12, he won a statewide drama competition, and while still at Broad Street High School, he performed in a radio show based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1955, he graduated from Broad Street, but turned down a partial drama scholarship from Jackson State University, opting instead to work as a mechanic in the United States Air Force.


...

In 2008, the TV series African American Lives 2 revealed that Freeman's great-great-grandparents were slaves who migrated from North Carolina to Mississippi. Freeman also discovered that his caucasian maternal great-great-grandfather had lived with, and was buried beside, Freeman's African-American great-great-grandmother (the two could not legally marry at the time, in the South).[2]

Morgan Freeman was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of Mayme Edna (née Revere), a teacher,[2] and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a barber who died April 27, 1961, from cirrhosis. He has three older siblings. Freeman was sent as an infant to his paternal grandmother in Charleston, Mississippi.[3][4][5] His family moved frequently during his childhood, living in Greenwood, Mississippi; Gary, Indiana; and finally Chicago, Illinois.[5] Freeman made his acting debut at age 9, playing the lead role in a school play. He then attended Broad Street High School, later named Threadgill Elementary School, in Mississippi. At age 12, he won a statewide drama competition, and while still at Broad Street High School, he performed in a radio show based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1955, he graduated from Broad Street, but turned down a partial drama scholarship from Jackson State University, opting instead to work as a mechanic in the United States Air Force.

Freeman moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s and worked as a transcript clerk at Los Angeles Community College. During this period, he also lived in New York City, working as a dancer at the 1964 World's Fair, and in San Francisco, where he was a member of the Opera Ring musical theater group. Freeman acted in a touring company version of The Royal Hunt of the Sun, and also appeared as an extra in the 1965 film The Pawnbroker. He made his off-Broadway debut in 1967, opposite Viveca Lindfors in The Nigger Lovers[6][7] (about the civil rights era "Freedom Riders"), before debuting on Broadway in 1968's all-black version of Hello, Dolly!, which also starred Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway.