Protesting Black Hawk Down

It's one thing to have Somali groups protesting Black Hawk Down for what they say is an inaccurate and racist portrayal of Somalis. It's quite another to have one of the actors in the Oscar-nominated movie, an account of the 1993 US military intervention in Somalia that left eighteen American soldiers dead, openly denounce the movie for the same reason.
But that's exactly what Brendan Sexton III did in front of a group of nearly 200 students at Columbia University on February 11. Sexton, who has appeared in such movies as Boys Don't Cry and Welcome to the Dollhouse, said the film oversimplifies and inaccurately portrays Somalis as "savages without any reason to oppose the US military presence in Somalia." He said he originally agreed to take the part because in the script his character openly denounces the military action. But, he said, "After September 11, they edited out the speech my character, Alphabet, made."