Black Lives Matter: HBO Max deletes ‘Gone With The Wind’ from its library

MUMBAI: With the death of an African American George Floyd, America has been in turmoil. Many Americans came forward and protested against the wrong and demanded justice over racial discrimination against Floyd. This then gave rise to the Black Lives Matter protests, a movement that started in 2013- and millions of citizens flocking to the White House and on the roads while they marched for justice. Even many celebs like Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, David Schwimmer physically took part in the protests and voiced out their concern and rage on their social media handles. Seeing the movement, HBO Max decided to pull out one of the classic films Gone With The Wind from their library.

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According to a report in Variety, the OTT platform took the decision of temporarily removing the 1939 film from its library in the wake of protests over the death of George Floyd. Speaking about the same, an HBO Max spokesperson told the portal, “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 source further quoted by the portal, “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.”

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