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Recently, the movie Gone with the Wind was pulled from HBO Max. The rise of recent protests over the unjust killing of Black men and women at the hands of police has rippled through the entertainment industry. The purpose of the protests — to end systemic racism — has people looking at all institutions.

In an LA Times op-ed, John Ridley stated that the classic film should be pulled until HBO Max, addressing its historical context in its depiction of slavery, Blacks and the antebellum south. Gone with the Wind is seen, by many viewers as a romanticized notion of American slavery and The Lost Cause.

However, I would advocate that Gone with the Wind should have never been pulled from any platform, HBO Max or otherwise. The movie provides documentation for Hollywood’s racist past and their historical use of stereotypical tropes in their depiction of Blacks. Furthermore, it also depicts and provides historical documentation of the roles that Blacks were once relegated to. When Gone with the Wind premiered, Clark Gable threatened to boycott the opening, which was held in Atlanta, when he learned that his co-star Hattie McDaniel and the other Black cast members would only be allowed to appear on stage, and not have the same accommodations as their white co-stars. McDaniel encouraged him to attend the premiere of the movie, which he did. All these events show the structural racism of America’s past even in “liberal” Hollywood.

By taking Gone with The Wind off the platform, even for a short period of time, John Ridley is inadvertently allowing Hollywood to wash itself of its own racial sins. Its absence from the platform will rather allow the myth to proceed that racism in America began and ended with slavery.

HBO Max did not give a timeline of when the film will be returning to its streaming service. This allows HBO Max cover to bring it back quietly. It is unlikely that there will be a big splashy press release stating that it has returned to its platform with additional content to balance its failures.

Lastly, Gone with The Wind is important because it shows the indifference of white women of means and privilege, and how their indifference contributed to the system of slavery as well as the disenfranchisement and abuse suffered by African-Americans in the United States. This indifference can be seen by the heroine of the story, Scarlett O’Hara. She is privileged and sheltered by a family who protects her and her sisters from the horrors of slavery. Her main goal in the film and book is survival. She seeks to rebuild her life to its former glory. She does this by working in the fields herself and eventually opening several businesses where she uses convict labor. She is advised against this, but insists cheap labor is needed to build her business.

The use of convicts as cheap labor helped to feed the prison system early on. Blacks were often imprisoned for minor offenses and then leased out for labor to businesses. The archetype of Scarlett is a person who does not see past themselves. She is a representation of how white women, especially those in positions of privilege, helped to hold up and perpetuate a system of racism.

It is necessary for Gone with The Wind to stay on the platform as a historical lesson, as well as to serve as accountability. Its presence holds Hollywood accountable to its past, and serves as leverage in the present to continue to create diverse works and ensure diverse representation in their films. If movies like Gone with The Wind are relegated to the vaults, then so is the history of racism in America. It will be locked away, out of sight, under lock and key. Once history is erased, it is forgotten. And while the present may not repeat the past, it often rhymes.