You Can't Cancel History: When do we agree that cancel culture has gone too far? Do we risk failing to learn from history if we choose to erase it?

HBO Max, the new streaming service from Warner Bros, announced on Wednesday that it was pulling the 1939 Victor Fleming epic Oscar winning film "Gone with the wind" from the service due to concerns over heightened racial tensions following the death of George Floyd.

Oscar winning screenwriter John Ridley (12 Years A Slave, American Crime) in an op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times celebrated the decision by saying:

“It is a film that, when it is not ignoring the horrors of slavery, pauses only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of colour,”

(Above) Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel in Gone With The Wind

“It is a film that, as part of the narrative of the ‘Lost Cause,’ romanticises the Confederacy in a way that continues to give legitimacy to the notion that the secessionist movement was something more, or better, or more noble than what it was — a bloody insurrection to maintain the ‘right’ to own, sell and buy human beings.”

John Ridley - LA TIMES 2020

(Above) - John Ridley Screenwriter and Producer

John Ridley is correct in his assessment of the film.

It's attitudes and its depictions of the south and in particular its depictions of people of colour are woeful cinematic stereotypes of a bygone era that are painful to watch in 2020.

Even though the film is a milestone in the industry for its recognition of Hattie McDaniel's performance in the film - She was the first person of colour to win an Academy Award for her performance as Mammy, it does not remove the pain of its portrayals of people of colour.

I've never personally been a fan of Gone With The Wind so I am not going to in anyway shape or form defend it to you here...

Yes I can appreciate the sweep and splendour of some of the epic visuals the film has to offer and the technical film making achievements on display that went into making it, but its just not a story that has ever had any appeal to me and I have in fairness never been able to sit through the film in one setting (even when it was forced upon me at film school).

But the recent move by streaming services and content providers globally to remove films and television series from their services simply because they reflect an outdated view that doesn't align to the current global culture disturbs me greatly.

The simple fact is you can not erase or cancel history.

You can only choose to strive to understand it, see it in its true context and learn from it.

Yes a lot of history is painful.

But that in and of itself is the point.

We learn from that pain to redefine who we as a society want to be moving forward.

If we’re suddenly going to go back through the entire history of cinema and start removing things that we feel are inappropriate by modern standards, then where do we stop or draw the line?

Do we erase all the inappropriate and overly sexualised viewpoints of women from the James Bond films (not to mention some of outdated racial stereotypes or actors of white heritage playing asian characters)?

Do we erase every film Harvey Weinstein ever had a hand in making?

Or do we go so far as to cancel everything that has come before and just start over?

The fact is there are plenty of fairly popular film franchises and classic films and TV shows (even some from more recent history that should know better) that showcase racial, sexual and societal stereotypes and relationships that today we would cringe at.

You can not erase them all.

You also have to ask yourself the question - how will future generations feel about our depictions of our cultures when it becomes their time to judge the past?

LEARNING FROM HISTORY

World War 2 is a defining moment in the history of the world.

While there are many positive lessons the world has learned from how the allies came together to win the war and overthrow Hitler and the Nazi regime in Europe and the Japanese in the Pacific, the biggest lessons we have learned from this period of our history come from the horrors that were inflicted during that war by human beings on other human beings.

These are stories we continue to share because they defined a viewpoint that we as a global community should all strive to never allow to have such horrors ever inflicted again.

Do many of us who have family who were killed or permanently scared by these events wish they never happened?

Sure.

But many of us also accept that these events did happen and there is no way of going back and retrospectively removing them, we can only learn from them and choose to move forward.

That road of learning from the past is very painful at times...

Yes it can really hurt people to see themselves or their culture represented in a way that is not true of how they were then or how they see themselves now...

Yes it is demeaning to see that in times gone by you were so totally and utterly defined by your gender and the perceived role your gender had in society...

Yes it is horrific to see sexual stereotypes of LGBTQIA that are abhorrent today.

But you can not just choose to cancel or erase that pain...

You can however choose to educate others on why it causes pain and hope that they see that pain and learn the lessons from the past so that we can have a better future.

MOVING FORWARD

So how do we move forward as a society with films and tv series that simply don't portray our values on screen?

Interestingly I think HBO Max who started the debate have proposed an appropriate solution.

A spokesperson from HBO Max had the following to say in a statement to the press in response to questions about pulling Gone with the wind from the platform:

“‘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 went further in also saying:

“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.”

I think this is a wise decision from HBO Max.

Rather than just placing films on streaming services without context and commentary, it is far more appropriate to provide both the historic context to the film, the values and morals of the time it was made and commentary on how we as a society have strived (not necessarily succeeded because as is evidenced by everything going on today we have not succeeded in eliminating racial or sexual inequality from society) to make change and to create a world where we see those values and morals as wholly inappropriate.

A further step already proposed by many in response to the news about this story would be to look to tell more stories that reflect inclusivity, diversity and responsible storytelling.

People of colour are woefully underrepresented in film.

Their stories matter.

They should be shared with all of us.