------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 19, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
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.
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