Whoopi Goldberg pushes back against censorship of 'Gone with the Wind,' 'Cops'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg disputed the idea that certain films and television programs should be censored in the wake of protests surrounding George Floyd's death.
Her comments came as HBO Max pulled "Gone with the Wind" from its programming and Paramount Network canceled its broadcasts of "Cops" — both of which have received criticism for the way they portray African-Americans.
Goldberg argued that Americans should be careful about retracting part of our history and instead suggested that "Gone with the Wind" could feature a disclaimer at the beginning of the film.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Personally I think if you put things in a historical context — because if you start pulling every film ... you're going to have to pull all of the blaxploitation movies because they're not depicting us the right way," said Goldberg, the second African-American woman to win an Academy Award for acting.
"That's a very long list of films. If you put, before you show the film: Listen, this was shot when things were different, and we don't, you know, we don't do this anymore, that's what — you have to put something in context, and I think with 'Cops,' listen, if you balance the people you arrest — if you arrested everybody, if you make it widespread — white people, yellow people, brown people. If everybody's getting arrested, you can have 'Cops.' It just feels like it's a whole bunch of black people all the time. I'm just saying."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}HBO Max has reportedly said that it would resume airing "Gone with the Wind" along with context surrounding its content.
Co-host Sunny Hostin indicated she was against censorship but saw the issue as a big "distraction." "To me, censorship is like a lazy way to go," co-host Joy Behar said.
She went on to ask whether canceling "Gone with the Wind" would actually solve racism.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I don't think so," she remarked.
This wasn't the first time Goldberg opposed censorship efforts from the entertainment industry. She previously criticized "Will & Grace" co-stars Debra Messing and Eric McCormack for requesting a publicized list of people attending a fundraiser for President Trump.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“In this country, people can vote for who they want to — that is one of the great rights of this country,” she said in September. “You don’t have to like it but we don’t go after people because we don’t like who they voted for — we don’t go after them that way. We can talk about issues and stuff, but we don’t print out lists.”
She went on to urge the actors to reconsider their tweets and “remember what the blacklist actually meant to people and don’t encourage anyone — anyone to do it.” Both Messing and McCormack later denied supporting blacklists.