The Removal of Old Movies?

In this day and age there are debates on what content and media should be removed from the internet? While some content is rightfully moderated out of platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other so called “Big-Tech” companies, but what about movies from the past? I’m not here to debate on my stance on the general content I believe should be displayed on media, but focus on movies that portray a historical event. I recently watched the movies The Birth of a Nation (2016) and Gone With The Wind (1939) both of which have Civil War connections. The Birth of a Nation focuses on a religious preacher, Nat Turner, and the slave revolt that he led known as the Southampton Insurrection. The group killed up to 75 people, mostly made up of White slave masters. The movie ends with a young Black man heading to the Civil War to ultimately fight for his freedom and other slaves. The second movie was Gone With The Wind, even though I have so far only watched the first few minutes for the movie the racist-stereotyped imagery is extremely obvious. Gone With The Wind tries to rewrite history by both downplaying and ignoring the true experience and aspects of slavery. The movie creates this imagery of hospitality that slaves were house maids or ‘normal’ workers, but the story is very far from reality.

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