A Quebec group that promotes diversity is launching a federal human rights complaint against humorous video website Têtes à claques.

Quebec Pluriel objects to a video titled The Cannibal, showing two white people in a pot of boiling water while a black "cannibal" prepares to eat them.

Têtes à claques refused to take down the video after the complaints by Quebec Pluriel earlier this week.

The Montreal-based race relations group says the video is insulting to black people and a reference to the black person as Kunta Kinte dishonours the memory of the slave who became an important symbol of the struggle to escape slavery.

Kunta Kinte is the black slave whose life was chronicled in Alex Haley's Roots: The Saga of an American Family, a book and later a mini-series that helped raise awareness of black history.

"It is inconceivable that a name like Kunta Kinte would be associated to a cannibal," said Lydie Olga Ntap, vice-president of Quebec Pluriel.

"It's unacceptable. Yes, there is liberty of expression, but there is respect, too."

The complaint before the human rights commission will target producer Salambo Productions and Bell Canada, a sponsor of the cartoon series.

"We must lance this abscess," Ntap said.

Michel Beaudet, one of the creators of the site, has said those who objected to the video have no sense of humour.

"Rest assured, we have no intention of pulling the clip, Le Cannibale," Têtes à claques producers say in a recent posting on the site.

"Thanks for your thousands of e-mails of support and encouragement."

Civil rights leaders staged a march in New York on Thursday over music lyrics that denigrate black people and women.

The issue of their depiction in the media has become prominent recently because of the firing of radio host Don Imus last month over a racist and sexist slur.