On MLK Day, MTV Airs Reflection on Race in Black and White

MTV is taking the color out of its programming on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to encourage people to talk about what race means in their lives.

The youth-oriented TV network is broadcasting its programming in black and white on Monday, a first in the channel's 34-year-old history. MTV will include interviews with public officials and entertainers with personal reflections on race.

The programming move is meant to promote #TheTalk initiative, encouraging viewers to discuss race with friends and family.

"The device of turning us black and white is going to be really— visually— a jolt to say, you know what, there are differences and if we are going to ever get to a freer, more equal society the best thing we can begin to do is talk about them," MTV President Stephen Friedman said.

The retro-look programs will air for 12 hours and include personal reflections on race from entertainers and public officials, including Kendrick Lamar, Big Sean, Jordin Sparks, Pete Wentz, Sen. Rand Paul, Rep. John Lewis, Sen. Cory Booker, "Selma" director Ava DuVernay and actor David Oyelowo, who played the role of King in that movie.

The Oscar-nominated film "Selma" chronicles the 1965 marches for voting rights that King led through Alabama. Lewis, one of the student leaders working with King, suffered a skull fracture when Alabama state troopers, sheriff deputies and others wielding bullwhips, clubs and tear gas advanced on the marchers on the outskirts of Selma.

In addition to entertaining its audience, MTV has traditionally engaged viewers in social issues, Friedman said.

The latest MTV initiative is a part of its Look Different anti-bias campaign that launched in April 2014 to get young people talking about race, gender and sexual orientation.

The campaign created commercials with civil rights groups including the NAACP in the aftermath of the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer. The network also aired a special, "Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word," about transgender youth with the "Orange is the New Black" star.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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