Protest stops racist film
By Page Getz
Los Angeles
The lights were out in the box office, but
outside the Silent Movie Theater in West Los Angeles, the
protesting organizations--including the International Action
Center, Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive To African
People, National Black Anti-Defamation Association and the
NAACP--clashed with the hostile crowd of patrons who were
outraged when they found out the film showing of "Birth of a
Nation" had been canceled.
The demonstration was called by CEMOTAP and the IAC.
For the second time in 10 years, the theater--the only one
in the nation that shows silent films--had attempted to screen
the film and then had to cancel as a result of public outcry.
Many of the protesters feel "Birth of a Nation" is not just
offensive to Black people, but that it is racist propaganda and
not art.
Many historians attribute a surge in violence against Black
people to the film. When it was first shown in 1915, even
contemporaries of the filmmaker, D.W. Griffith, regarded the
film as an embarrassment. It not only reinforced racist
stereotypes, it actually promoted lynching and glorified
slavery.
Griffith's father was a Confederate soldier. Later in life,
Griffith released another version of the film after cutting
scenes that portrayed the KKK with seeming reverence. According
to film critic Roger Ebert, Griffith was so immersed in racist
culture that the film's offensive character had to be pointed
out and explained to him.
According to the NAACP, from 1890 to 1960 more than 5,000
Black people were burned, shot or mutilated by lynch mobs--a
figure widely considered to be conservative because often law
enforcement failed to document lynchings.
The success of the protest is a sign that any attempt to
even hint at bringing back such a period will be met with
determined struggle.
Reprinted from the Aug. 18, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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