Hattie McDaniel (right) portrayed the servant Mammy in Gone With the Wind, a character that embodies insulting stereotypes. | Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Gone with the Wind has returned to HBO Max, along with two new videos that discuss the historical context and racial stereotypes of the 1939 Civil War epic. The film was removed from the streaming service earlier this month after an opinion piece written by John Ridley, screenwriter for 12 Years a Slave, argued that it romanticized the horrors of slavery.
The film doesn’t just “fall short” in its depictions of Black people, wrote Ridley; it glorifies myths about the Antebellum South. “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 color.”
WarnerMedia agreed with the criticism and…