Whoopi Goldberg against pulling ‘Gone with the Wind’, says it should come with disclaimer to put it in context
Whoopi Goldberg has expressed her disagreement with the censorship of certain films and television programs in the wake of nationwide protests over the May 25 killing of George Floyd. Floyd, an unarmed African-American, died after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.
Goldberg’s comments came after HBO Max temporarily took off ‘Gone with the Wind’ from its programming and Paramount Network pulled broadcast of ‘Cops’. Both of them have received criticism for the way they have depicted African-Americans. But the 64-year-old actress said people should be mindful while retracting part of history and suggested that shows and films can put a disclaimer at the beginning.
“Personally I think if you put things in a historical context — because if you start pulling every film ... you're going to have to pull all of the blaxploitation movies because they're not depicting us the right way," said Goldberg, the second African-American woman to win an Academy Award for acting. “That's a very long list of films. If you put, before you show the film: Listen, this was shot when things were different, and we don't, you know, we don't do this anymore, that's what — you have to put something in context, and I think with 'Cops,' listen if you balance the people you arrest — if you arrested everybody if you make it widespread — white people, yellow people, brown people. If everybody's getting arrested, you can have 'Cops.' It just feels like it's a whole bunch of black people all the time. I'm just saying,” she added.
Sunny Hostin, who hosts ‘The View’ along with Goldberg, Joy Behar, Meghan McCain, and Abby Huntsman, also seemed to agree with the ‘Ghost’ star as she said she was against censorship but saw the problem as a big "distraction."
While Behar said, “To me, censorship is like a lazy way to go,” as she went on to ask whether stopping the broadcast of ‘Gone with the Wind’ would actually solve racism. “I don't think so," Behar added.
Not just ‘The View’ hosts, but Megyn Kelly also spoke up against the censorship. On Twitter, the 49-year-old journalist wrote: “Are we going to pull all of the movies in which women are treated as sex objects too? Guess how many films we’ll have left? Where does this end?? Ok, @hbomax - let’s do this - every episode of “Friends” needs to go right now. If not, you hate women (& LGBTQ ppl, who also don’t fare well on “Friends”). Obviously Game of Thrones has to go right now. Anything by John Hughes ... Woody Allen... could go on & on... & on...& on…”
She added: “For the record, you can loathe bad cops, racism, sexism, bias against the LGBTQ community, and not censor historical movies, books, music, and art that don’t portray those groups perfectly. Ppl understand art reflects life... as we evolve, so do our cultural touchstones."
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for HBO Max said in a statement that it would resume airing ‘Gone with the Wind’, along with a disclaimer surrounding the controversial historical depictions and elements of the story. "Gone With the Wind is a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society. These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible,” the statement said.
It added: “These depictions are certainly counter to WarnerMedia’s values, so when we return the film to HBO Max, it will return with a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions but will be presented as it was originally created because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. If we are to create a more just, equitable, and inclusive future, we must first acknowledge and understand our history."