We Can Fight for Racial Justice While Tolerating Dissent
We cannot allow the present moment — one of such potential importance — to deteriorate into a McCarthy-like hunt for wrong-thinkers.
Fist bump.
Photographer: Brent Stirton/Getty ImagesWe’re living at a dangerous intellectual moment. In the wake of the coldblooded police slaying of George Floyd on a Minneapolis street corner, people are marching for racial justice, a development that’s all to the good in our broken country. But when those demands turn to restricting the universe of permissible conversation, they cross a democratic line that’s worth defending.
Item: HBO Max has temporarily removed “Gone With the Wind” from its catalog, citing its racist stereotypes and glorification of Southern slavery, until the film can be reinserted with what the company considers appropriate “context.”