A New Issue with Discrimination? In 2023???

This last Christmas day, it was Bishop William Barber plan to attend a showing of the Color Purple at his local AMC theater. With his disability with a rare form of arthritis, he has to have a special chair to sit in. His hips and part of neck and spine are fused so he has lost mobility.

However, although he has taken that special chair to all sorts of places, including the White House he was told that he was a fire hazard for where he was. He was located in a handicapped section of the seating, a place, cut out as he calls it, for the chair. He had apparently called ahead and everything.

The theater manager got angry and called the police to escort him out of the theater. His mother, 90 years old, was left in the theater. According to the reports on the internet, the owner of AMC has met and apologized. Even in the videos, he even makes clear that while he is well known, that is not the issue. Many other people across the country have the same mobility issues and don’t have the courage to go out and try because of things like this.

The Bishop is an icon of Civil Rights, this brings attention of its own kind, but it does bring attention to people that don’t have that name recognition.

With leg problems myself, this issue touches close to my own story.

I did do a google search to see if there was other issues involved and haven’t found anything that disputes the general position expressed by Bishop Barber in this video.