Gone with the Wind returns to HBO Max with slavery warning

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5 hours ago

George Floyd death

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Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel both won Oscars for their work in the film

Gone With The Wind has been reinstated by HBO Max, alongside a disclaimer saying it "denies the horrors of slavery".

The 1939 film, set during and after the American Civil War, was removed by the streaming site earlier this month.

HBO Max said at the time it showed "ethnic and racial prejudices" that "were wrong then and are wrong today".

Now, it has returned online, also accompanied by two videos discussing the film's historical context.

One shows TV host and film scholar Jacqueline Stewart noting how the popular movie's depiction of black people was controversial even at the time of release.

'Deeply concerned'

"Producer David O Selznick was well aware that black audiences were deeply concerned about the film's handling of the topic of slavery and its treatment of black characters," she says.

"The film's treatment of this world through a lens of nostalgia denies the horrors of slavery, as well as its legacies of racial inequality," she added.

Gone with the Wind removed from HBO Max

Fawlty Towers episode to be reinstated by UKTV

The second video is an hour-long panel discussion debating Gone with the Wind's "complicated legacy".

Widespread Black Lives Matter protests, in the wake of the death of George Floyd - a black American, who died while in the custody of a white police officer - have prompted broadcasters, producers, directors and actors to quickly re-evaluate what is acceptable on our screens today,

A classic episode of the British comedy Fawlty Towers was removed from the UKTV streaming service last month over its use of racial slurs, but plans are in place to bring it back with a warning about "offensive content and language".

Elsewhere, actress Jenny Slate announced on Wednesday that she will no longer voice a black character in the animated series Big Mouth, as her role was "engaging in an act of erasure of black people".

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Jenny Slate has given up her role as Missy in the Netflix animated comedy Big Mouth

Slate, who is white, had starred as Missy in the Netflix comedy, but the role will now be recast.

"Black characters on an animated show should be played by black people," she went on.

In a joint statement, Big Mouth creators Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett added: "We sincerely apologise for and regret our original decision to cast a white actor to voice a biracial character."

They confirmed the role would be recast with a black actor.

'A lack of awareness'

Frozen star Kristen Bell followed Slate's lead soon after, revealing she would no longer be lending her voice to a non-white character in the Apple TV+ comedy Central Park.

Bell wrote on Instagram that her playing Molly, a mixed-race character, "shows a lack of awareness of my pervasive [white] privilege".

"Casting a mixed race character with a white actress undermines the specificity of the mixed race and Black American experience. It was wrong and we, on the Central Park team, are pledging to make it right," she wrote.

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Kristen Bell acknowledged that playing Molly on Central Park was an "act of complicity"

"I am happy to relinquish this role to someone who can give a much more accurate portrayal and I will commit to learning, growing and doing my part for equality and inclusion."

Bell and Slate are not the first actors arrive at this conclusion, as in January, Hank Azaria confirmed he would no longer lend his voice to Indian shopkeeper Apu on The Simpsons.

Now, since Mr Floyd's death in May, momentum for real change in film and TV appears to have gathered pace. Another streaming site Hulu announced on Wednesday it has removed three episodes of the US hospital-based comedy Scrubs, which featured characters in blackface.

The move, confirmed by Variety, came at the request of the show's creator Bill Lawrence and ABC Studios. It also came just days after multiple episodes of another US comedy, 30 Rock, were removed from streaming platforms for the same reason.

30 Rock blackface episodes to be taken down

Brooklyn Nine-Nine bins episodes after Floyd death

Ant and Dec sorry for acting as 'people of colour'

Little Britain pulled from iPlayer and Netflix

Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Terry Crews said this week that four new episodes of the police comedy were thrown "in the trash", as they looked to better represent the anti-racist movement going forward.

In the UK, Little Britain was removed from BBC iPlayer, Netflix and BritBox as objections resurfaced to some of the sketch show's characters, while Ant and Dec apologised for impersonating "people of colour" on their Saturday Night Takeaway show.

Mary Jackson: Nasa to name HQ after first black female engineer

BBC NEWS

25 June 2020

AFP

Mary Jackson became Nasa's first black female engineer in 1958

Nasa is to name its headquarters in Washington DC after its first black female engineer, Mary Jackson.

Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said Jackson had helped to break down barriers for African Americans and women in engineering and technology.

The story of Mary Jackson was told in the 2016 film Hidden Figures. Born in Hampton, Virginia, she died in 2005.

Last year, Nasa renamed the street outside its headquarters as Hidden Figures Way.

"Hidden no more, we will continue to recognise the contributions of women, African Americans, and people of all backgrounds who have made Nasa's successful history of exploration possible," Mr Bridenstine said in a statement.

How Nasa hired its first black women 'computers'

"Mary W Jackson was part of a group of very important women who helped Nasa succeed in getting American astronauts into space," Mr Bridenstine added.

"Mary never accepted the status quo, she helped break barriers and open opportunities for African Americans and women in the field of engineering and technology."

The move comes at a time of introspection across the US about historical injustices suffered by African Americans.

The recent death in police custody of George Floyd triggered protests around the world and renewed demands for an end to institutional racism.

REUTERS

The building will be called the Mary W Jackson Nasa Headquarters

Nasa began recruiting some college-educated African American women in the 1940s as "human computers", but they experienced both racial and gender discrimination at work.

Mary Jackson was recruited in 1951 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics which was succeeded by Nasa in 1958. She worked under Dorothy Vaughan - whose story was also told in Hidden Figures - in the segregated West Area Computing Unit at Langley, Virginia.

Jackson died in 2005 and in 2019 she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

Her daughter, Carolyn Lewis, said the family was honoured that Nasa was continuing to celebrate Mary Jackson's legacy.

"She was a scientist, humanitarian, wife, mother, and trailblazer who paved the way for thousands of others to succeed, not only at Nasa, but throughout this nation," she said

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Black Lives Matter protester hailed as hero for saving suspected far-right demonstrator in London melee

Black Lives Matter protester hailed as hero for saving suspected far-right demonstrator in London melee

By

William Booth and

Karla Adam

June 15, 2020 at 9:56 a.m. PDT

LONDON — It is the photograph that has captured a hopeful, valiant, singular moment in a divided Britain — the image of a Black Lives Matter protester hoisting an injured man suspected of being a far-right demonstrator onto his shoulder to extricate him from a violent scrum near Waterloo Bridge.

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From Saturday’s melee in central London emerged Patrick Hutchinson, a black Briton, hailed as a savior for carrying the prone white man with a shaved head and cutoff jeans in a fireman’s lift.

The British tabloids, even the right-wing ones, called Hutchinson a “hero,” and accolades poured forth on social media from politicians and ordinary folk. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said, “Patrick Hutchinson’s instincts in that moment represent the best of us.”

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On his Instagram account, Hutchinson wrote, “We saved a life today.”

In an interview with Britain’s Channel 4, the personal trainer and grandfather said he arrived at the scene to see the man on the ground, under attack by protesters.

Hutchinson and his mates formed a cordon around the man.

“If the other three police officers that were standing around when George Floyd was murdered had thought about intervening, and stopping their colleague from doing what he was doing, like what we did, George Floyd would be alive today still,” Hutchinson said, referring to the unarmed black man in Minneapolis who died May 25 after a police officer put a knee to his neck for almost nine minutes.

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“I just want equality for all of us,” Hutchinsontold broadcasters. “At the moment, the scales are unfairly balanced, and I want things to be fair for my children and my grandchildren.”

The rescue occurred during rallies in London on Saturday, whenBlack Lives Matter demonstrators had mostly yielded the streets to avoid clashes with far-right counterprotesters, whom organizers had called out to defend national monuments such as the Winston Churchill statue in Parliament Square and the Cenotaph memorial near 10 Downing Street, from vandalism.

A week ago, during protests over racism and police brutality, one young man had tried to set alight a Union Flag at the Cenotaph, a memorial to Britain’s war dead. Someone elsehad tagged the Churchill statue with graffiticalling him a racist, sparking a national debate over the wartime prime minister’s words and actions.

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On Saturday, Reuters photographer Dylan Martinez captured the image of Hutchinson emerging from a crowd with the injured man on his shoulder.

Before he shot that frame, Martinez says, he heard a shout, “That’s not what we do!”

“I saw a skirmish and someone falling to the ground,” the photographer told his news organization. “The crowd parted right in front of me. I was in the right place at the right time, and incredibly lucky from that point of view.”

Reuters journalists at the scene reported that the injured man had been beaten by protesters. “Some people in the crowd shouted out that the assault victim was a member of the far right,” the news agency wrote.

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The counterprotests Saturday were dominated by clusters of mostly white men, some from far-right groups who claimed they were there to protect statues in Parliament Square, even though the statues had already been boarded up.

Witnesses in London posted cellphone video of one group of men, with cans of beer in their hands, harassing and kicking at picnickers sitting on a lawn in a park. Others were filmed goading and attacking police. Reporters on the scene, some of whom were threatened by counterprotesters, said many of the men appeared drunk.

One far-right counterprotester, Andrew Banks, 28, of Stansted, Essex, was photographed Saturday morning urinating next to a memorial to Keith Palmer, a police officer who was stabbed to death in the 2017 Westminster terrorist attack.

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Banks later said he had consumed 16 pints of beer the night before and could not find a toilet. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail for outraging public decency, the Guardian newspaper reported.

In court Monday, Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot told Banks: “The irony is that rather than protecting the monuments, you very nearly ended up urinating on one. The harm caused is the upset and shock felt by members of the public who saw the images that generated a strong sense of revulsion.”

The Metropolitan Police said more than 100 people were arrested Saturday.

Pierre Noah, 47, who works with Hutchinson at Ark Protection, a security company that provides clients with bodyguards, told The Washingon Post that the atmosphere on Saturday was “terrible.”

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He said there were football hooligans chanting “Go back to Africa, you monkeys.” He said he then noticed that “this guy was in danger, and I was able to shield him, and Patrick and another colleague carried him to safety.”

Noah said, “If we didn’t do what we did, who knows what would have happened to him.”

Both sides “need education,” he said. “If you don’t have education, you don’t have common sense.”

Johnson, who is also a Churchill biographer, said he would do everything in his power to protect the statue of Churchill but called the counterprotesters “far-right thugs and bovver boys.”

A “bovver boy” in British slang is a hooligan, often a skinhead, who creates bother.

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“It was right that a good number should have been arrested,” Johnson said in a column in theDaily Telegraph. “They were violent. They were aggressive towards the police. They were patently racist. There is nothing that can excuse their behaviour.”

He pledged to set up a commission to examine racial inequality in Britain.

David Lammy, a Labour politician and author of a 2017 review of inequality in the British criminal justice system, said action is needed, not more reports.

“He’s announced a commission, behind a paywall, in the Telegraph, buried in the middle of yet another article about Churchill. If he was serious, why are there no details?”Lammy told the BBC. “Get on with the action, legislate, move — you’re in government, do something.”

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William Booth William Booth is The Washington Post’s London bureau chief. He was previously bureau chief in Jerusalem, Mexico City, Los Angeles and Miami. Follow

Karla Adam Karla Adam is a London correspondent for The Washington