Haitians are criticizing the movie romance "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" and demanding an apology, saying the film revives the outdated fear that they carry AIDS.
In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration removed Haitians from its official list of high-risk AIDS carriers in 1991.In the movie, 40-year-old divorcee Stella, played by Angela Bassett, travels to Jamaica and has an affair with a man half her age. When her sisters question her about it afterward, one asks if he used a condom "because those people have a history of AIDS."
The other sister interjects: "No, that's Haiti, Miss Manners."
To many Haitian-Americans, that's a painful flashback to the time when the federal government branded them as AIDS carriers and barred them from donating blood.
"Those words have lessened the experience of this movie for me," said Miami-area lawyer Regine Monestime, 27. "They put a cloud of negativity on Haitians and it reconfirms ignorant peoples' myths about Haiti and Haitians."
Haiti was one of the first countries that scientists associated with the virus. In the early 1980s, scientists speculated that New York homosexuals were bringing the virus home with them after vacationing in Haiti.
"It is really an unfortunate thing that this comment brings us back to where we were years ago," said Jocelyn McCalla, executive director of the New-York based National Coalition for Haitian Rights, who took part in the protests of the government ban on Haitian blood donations.
Last week, Haitian-Americans from different backgrounds - college students, lawyers and teachers - gathered in North Miami to call for a national apology from 20th Century Fox, which released the film.
They also agreed to start a petition drive, asking the film studio to remove the scene from releases of the film on video and in foreign markets.
The movie is based on the best-selling novel by Terry McMillan, who co-wrote the screenplay. Neither McMillan nor Fox would comment. The Haitian reference did not appear in the novel.