Edward de Gale, Toronto Pianist, Songwriter and Poet

Thursday, July 16, 2020

Digitally Removing the Confederate Flag from Old Films

I saw the following posted as a comment on an article about whitewashing of black characters and thought it was a very good comment, and thus worthy of a blog post:

While we are fixing this problem, can we also got back to old movies and REMOVE something digitally that very often doesn't need to be there?

Eg. The Confederate Flag.

There is a time and place for the confederate flag, like in Civil War movies or in films where racism plays an important role, but films like "Smokey and the Bandit" however, wherein two of the protagonists are driving around in a black Trans Am with a confederate flag on the front next to the license plate... That is unnecessary.

Yes, the villain in the film (the evil sheriff Buford T. Justice) is a racist bigot, so racism does play a role in the film... But if anyone should have the confederate flag on his car, it should be the racist sheriff. Not the protagonist.

This problem can be seen in other films too. "Smokey and the Bandit" is hardly the exception.

We should also be digitally removing the confederate flag from many other movies and even TV shows. Eg. Dukes of Hazard should definitely remove all the confederate flags.

If the Washington Redskins can finally change their racist name, isn't it time we digitally remove unnecessary symbols of racism from films?

And honestly, I agree with this idea.

Furthermore, organizations like Netflex could even take a stand on this issue by refusing to display films like "Smokey and the Bandit" and others until the studios which own their rights take the necessary steps to remove the confederate flag from any film where the flag doesn't need to be there.

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