Delta Airlines will no longer feature comedian Chris Rock’s Kill the Messenger comedy special as part of its in-flight entertainment offerings due to the actor’s use of a homosexual slur.
“The Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger segment should not have been uploaded on flights based on our criteria for excluding onboard programming that includes content featuring explicit language, slurs, extreme violence, and explicit scenes,” Delta Airlines said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly.
The statement continued:
We apologize to any customers who were offended by the content or our airing of the segment, and we are working as quickly as possible to remove it from our aircraft. Our commitment to inclusion and respect of all customers is rooted in Delta’s values and culture, and we proudly embrace diverse people, thinking and styles.
The controversy came when Jeremy Foreshew, a passenger on a Delta flight who works for the gay dating app Grindr, complained after watching the comedy: “Dear @Delta and @chrisrock,” Foreshew tweeted, “here’s a list of when FAGGOTS deserve to be called FAGGOTS … 1) never 2) never 3) never Get the idea.”
“When you think of the number of people who fly Delta every day and have access to that language … it just shocked me,” Foreshew told GayTravel.com.
Delta said its in-flight features are often edited for content.
The Kill the Messenger controversy came just weeks after Delta faced criticism for screening an edited version of the lesbian romance Carol that omitted all the same-sex love scenes. Delta also released a statement apologizing for showing Carol.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @jeromeehudson.
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