With the continued education about the Black Lives Matter movement within Hollywood and the rest of the world, many shows are being called out for their racist content from the past.
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One of the most notable shows to have their blackface episodes removed from streaming services is *30 Rock*.
The show featured FOUR blackface episodes, which was super surprising information to people who never watched the show as it aired from 2006-2013.
Now, it has been announced that an episode of *Golden Girls* featuring blackface will be pulled from Hulu.
The episode titled “Mixed Blessings” aired back in 1988 and focused on Dorothy’s son, Michael, and his upcoming marriage to an older Black woman.
Neither Dorothy (Bea Arthur) nor the mother of the Black woman (Virginia Capers) approved of the couple’s relationship.
Now, things take a super problematic turn when Rose (Betty White) and Blanche (Rue McClanahan) test out new face masks.
The pair greet the Black woman’s family while wearing their mud masks.
To make matters worse, Rose and and Blanche make note of how they look, saying, “This is mud on our faces, we’re not really Black.”
Critics and fans of the show have been calling this scene problematic for years now.
Deadline now reports that the episode was removed from Hulu’s streaming service at the request of the series’ distributor, Disney-ABC Domestic Television.
Fan reactions have been mixed, to say the least.
It has become clear to a lot of people that removing an episode of Golden Girls featuring a black face mask isn’t the message of the Black Lives Matter movement.
If anything, it is distracting from the main purpose of the movement, which is addressing the systematic racism in America and across the globe.
“Removing this episode is weird, counterproductive and stupid. It diminishes the effort to actually end racism. It’s just so dumb,” tweeted one fan.
“Come on now. Black woman and gay folks are not offended by the mud masks episode. The CEO of Hulu, Netflix, and other streaming platforms are taking things too far. Just tell the cops to stop killing unarmed black people.”
Many Black people on Twitter are making it clear they are not offended by the episode and that removing it defeats the whole purpose of the BLM movement.
I think it’s clear that this Golden Girls episode is not the largest offender of racism by any means.
Many people pointed out that *Golden Girls* was actually very ahead of its time and progressive AF.
Like that time Don Cheadle schooled Blanche Devereaux on the harmful message of the Confederate flag.
“Doing everything in their power to make BLM look petty and annoying so people will shut up about it… y’all know what we want and this is not it…” wrote one upset Twitter user.
What do you think of the Golden Girls episode being removed?
To learn more about the Black Lives Matter movement, please click here .
