Universal's streaming service, Peacock, recently removed racist content from the WWE back catalog. A series of other studios have had to deal with the same issue when it comes to addressing our nation's racist history. With every studio in town launching its own streaming service, there has been an unexpected headache that companies are now trying to solve. The problem is, now that there is access to almost every movie or show ever made on streaming, what do we do with the old content that depicts race in an unflattering light?
Back in June of 2020, Warner Media caused a lot of controversy when it decided to remove the classic film, Gone With the Wind, from its streaming service, HBO Max. The film has long been criticized for its glorification of the American south during the Civil War and its rosy depiction of slavery. Nevertheless, the film is still lauded as great cinema and a true classic. To this day, it is still the number 1 highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation. When the film was taken down by HBO, it caused a huge backlash from film fans who defended the movie based on its historical significance. HBO decided to put Gone with the Wind back on its streaming service, but this time it came with a content warning at the beginning of the movie. This warning denounced the racism in the film and made sure to mention the time period in which the movie was made for context. Since then, other studios have followed suit, including Disney, who put content warnings in front of some of their own controversial films, such as Peter Pan and Dumbo.
Now, Peacock is having some of the same problems with their streaming service after recently adding older WWE material. One of the videos in question was a WrestleMania 6 event where Roddy Piper was painted half-black. This aired in 1990. Another problematic video was a Survivor Series event where Vince McMahon targets the "n" word towards John Cena. This aired in 2005. Obviously, neither examples have aged well and look horrible by 2021's standards. Pwinsider is reporting that Peacock has already removed these videos off of their platform.
Times have changed, and with it, people's perception of race and what is considered racist. Often, films and shows made a long time ago do not reflect modern sensibilities on these issues. Some people today find many of these films too offensive and too problematic for modern audiences.
Not everyone agrees with the best strategy when it comes to addressing these issues. Some argue that we should leave these movies and shows as they are without censorship or content warnings as they represent our history and allow us to learn from our past mistakes. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how streaming services like Peacock will continue to address these issues in the future.
Source: Pwinsider
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