Bob Marley Tee-Shirts Are Too Offensive For Family Values Six Flags Parks

Who knew that reggae greats went against the family values Six Flags parks tries to instill?

Thirty-two year old medical technology specialist, Brunaud Moise, a black man who was taking his fifteen year old brother to Laronde, a Six Flags owned amusement park in Montreal was refused entry because he was wearing a grey Bob Marley tee-shirt emblazoned with a cluster of green marijuana leaves. Below is a picture of the “offensive” tee-shirt.

It is quite fishy how things seemed to have unfolded, beginning at the entrance of the park, according to Mr Moise.

“They said give us your ticket and he’s going to explain after so he didn’t even explain before what was the problem. And then he said it was inappropriate,” Moïse tells CJAD News.

Joey Elias, who was replacing Redneck Ryan Doyle on CJAD this fine evening, had Mr Moise on the phone. The security guards had basically told him to either turn his shirt inside out or he wouldn’t be admitted. Well, Joey so astutely pointed out that the Laronde goon squad doesn’t even know their own rules.  You see, Family Values Six Flags has a whole page on conduct on their web site, including a section on dress code.

DRESS CODE

In keeping with our family-friendly atmosphere, and for health and safety reasons, Six Flags strictly enforces a dress code. Proper attire must be worn at all times, including shirts and appropriate footwear. Clothing with rude, vulgar or offensive language or graphics is not permitted, and shirts cannot be turned inside-out as a solution. Bathing suits may be worn only in water park areas. Park admission may be denied if clothing is deemed by management to be inappropriate.

Those goons were essentially suggesting to Mr Moise that he break another rule by turning his tee-shirt inside out? Or was this another trap to perhaps further humiliate him and his younger brother inside the park? And where does it say that Bob Marley or images of marijuana leaves are offensive or vulgar? I don’t remember any of Bob Marley’s songs being all that racey.

The last time I went to Laronde, it was still owned by the city of Montreal, long before the expansions; long before Six Flags purchased it. I used to wear some harder core tee-shirts like “Who give a Fuck what Frankie Say?” I hated Frankie Goes to Hollywood and never understood their allure.  I also wore an old sweatshirt my dad had given me saying “US Olympic Drinking Team” over there, and still was never refused entrance. No one really thought of anything at the time.

Joey Elias was musing along with technical producer, Mike Babins that they should head off to Laronde together wearing rocker, tie-dyed tees with skeletons on them or a slogan that says “Legalize this!”  Anyone who has ever seen Joey on stage, know that he’s a big guy, standing at around 6’4″.  Mike Babins has long hair. So imagine the visual. Joey believes they could pass and that Mr Moise’s case was of racial profiling. I honestly hope that Joey and Mike perform experiment and provide feed back. It would be interesting to find out the results; would be interesting to see if they passed through or not.

Bruneaud Moise is filing a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission, asking for damages, refunds for his Laronde passes, and a public apology. Anthony Morgan, of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations, a Montreal-based civil rights organization is backing Moise’s complaint. He says that this case  highlights Six Flags’ “conservative, right-wing policies.” Indeed, it is not the first time Six Flags gets into hot water over such family values nasties like racial profiling.

In 2004, Six Flags Inc. agreed to pay $5.6 million U.S. to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing security guards at Magic Mountain, near Los Angeles, of improperly searching visitors and excluding them solely on their appearance. Some customers complained the park’s anti-gang rule unfairly targeted minorities. The company denied any wrongdoing, and said it agreed to settle only to move on.

Morgan added that there were reports last spring of two black women who said they were denied jobs at a Six Flags theme park in Maryland because they had dreadlocks. Morgan, a McGill University law student, said the Moïse case proves Six Flags does not have a broad view of modern families. “A lot people don’t fit the company’s family model,” he said. Marley is a symbol of black pride, he added.

Certainly very telling. These cases certainly give a precedent for Six Flags racist values. Of course, lest we forget, today’s “family values” conservatism is all about lilly whiteness hiding behind white picket fences, eating wonder white bread.

Then, as Joey mused on his show this evening, he wondered if any of those young girls of any colour were banned from the park, given the provocative way many of them dress today with their micro mini-skirts and tight low cut crop tops and high heels many can’t even walk in? How about many of those boys who walk around in those oversized pants halfway down their butts so their undies are visible for all to see or even the crack of their buttsf?  Does that follow the family values dress code?

Moise said his younger brother remained quiet during the confrontation with the guards.

“I told him you have to be courageous when these things happen. There has to be a change in mentality.”

That couldn’t have been easy; he counted on spending quality time with his younger brother, giving him a fun day. Instead, he got a hard lesson on racial profiling from the American Conservative “family values” brigade.