Here are all the reason why Gone with theWind should be put away. This video is the third and final entry, for now, in my mini series about anti-Blackness in the U.S.

For those of you who don’t know, Gone with the Wind is a movie from 1939, that I think still holds the record for highest grossing movie ever, when adjusted for inflation?

It’s based on a book of the same name by Margaret Mitchell from 1936, and it was so popular the movie adaptation only came out 3 years later.

The movie takes place before, during, and after the Civil War. It centers around the O’Hara family who live in the confederate south, and all they want to do is defeat the yankees in order to keep their slaves.

At the helm of the family is Scarlett O’Hara, who does everything and anything necessary to survive after the south ends up losing the war and she in turn loses her wealth and status.

The film is 3 hours long and details decades of Scarlett’s life. From when she’s a young teen looking to be wed, to after the war as a widow,

and to her eventual marriage to longtime sweet heart Rhett Butler, who eventually leaves her due to her shrewdness, but not before raping her.

And throughout all of this, the “peculiar institution” of slavery - hangs in the background like window dressing.

The Black actors in the film - Hattie McDaniel, Butterfly McQueen, Oscar Polk, and Everett Brown play the roles of Scarlett’s slaves.

And of course, they’re quite happy being enslaved.

Mammy - portrayed by Hattie McDaniel - is the “Black best friend” character, who’s of course also maternal and loving. We never learn about her life or her family or anything else about her.

Butterfly McQueen plays Prissy, who was written to say an incredibly offensive line about not knowing anything about childbirth.

When we all know that Black women most definitely knew what to do in childbirth considering the real life sexual violence they faced.

Which, by the way, was already well known at this point, as Black memoirs have existed since slavery, but white Hollywood didn’t and sitll doesnt’ give a shit about that.

Next there’s Pork played by Oscar Polk who stays with Scarlett even after the Civil War. And this wasn’t uncommon, as most former slaves didn’t really have anything after they were free.

They most certainly weren’t paid reparations.

But the movie frames it as if he wants to be there to help his former master out...as if they’re friends or equals or something.

Lastly, there’s Big Sam played by Everett Brown who saves Scarlett from some yankee bandits.

This scene always perplexed me because it is nice to see an old movie portray a Black man as heroic, but at the same time he saves her because she was a ‘good slave owner’, which she most certainly was not.

Besides the portrayal of enslaved people, the movie goes out of its way to have the audience feel bad for the confederacy and sympathize with their plight - which was to keep people in bondage.

Most people in the U.S. and outside of it don’t know how much the Civil War meant for the south. They really really wanted to keep Black people in chains.

Decades after the Civil War, during the early 1900s, Civil War monuments to slave owners popped up around the country, donated by the daughters and sons of the confederacy. The U.S. navy still flies the confederate flag.

And the confederate flag is sewn into a lot of southern state flags to this day.

It’s a symbol of white supremacy and needs to be archived away, much like this movie.

TIMESTAMPS:
Intro: 0:00
Part 1 What is Gone with the Wind? 0:53
Part 2 The Normalization of White Supremacist Propoganda 4:22
- How does Gone with the Wind hold up white supremacy? 5:19
-How the movie romanticizes the confederacy. 5:59
Part 3: What happened to Hattie McDaniel? 7:23
Conclusion 9:09

--- ---

My last three videos: (◕‿◕✿)

⭢ ANTI-BLACKNESS IN THE ASIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY |    • ANTI-BLACKNESS IN THE ASIAN AMERICAN ...  

⭢ EXPLAINING ANTI-BLACK RACISM IN THE U. S. |    • EXPLAINING ANTI-BLACK RACISM IN THE U...  

⭢ BRAZILIAN STEREOTYPES: TRUE OR FALSE [CC PT & ENG] |    • Video  

--- ---

Support me (◕‿◕)

Contribute to my Patreon so I can improve my channel!
⭢   / cheyennelin  

Follow Me on Twitter
⭢   / _cheyennelin