Queen Latifah Wants ‘Gone With The Wind’ Gone

The 1939 film Gone With the Wind has been temporarily removed from HBO Max due to the recent protests over Black people killed by police. 

The film famously romanticized slavery and many have argued should be permanently removed from streaming services. 

Nonetheless, the film will return to the streaming service with an introduction from University of Chicago professor Jacqueline Stewart.

Queen Latifah, who played Hattie McDaniel in the Netflix series Hollywood has now sounded off.   

In an interview with the Associated Press, the Oscar nominee said, “Let ‘Gone with the Wind’ be gone with the wind.”

She then referenced Hattie McDaniel, who played Mammy in the film and became the first Black person to win an Academy Award, “They didn’t even let her in the theatre until right before she got that award. Someone came outside and brought her into the auditorium. She wasn’t even allowed to sit in there. And then she had to read a speech that was written by a studio. You know that’s not what the hell she wanted to say.”

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Latifah continued, “All she could do was play the same kinds of roles … So the opportunities at that time and the way that those in power in that business were relegating us and marginalizing us and not allowing us to grow and thrive after that was just terrible. And a lot of that is still around today.”

Sadly, playing maids would haunt McDaniel’s career for years. She was slammed by the NAACP for portraying stereotypes on screen. In 1947, McDaniel famously said, “I’d rather play a maid than be one.”