Bette Midler FTW: Hey Teenagers, Read This

[ShazzieB]

28. I read GWTW over 50 years ago.

Found the story engrossing and even entertaining, but the racism is absolutely off the charts extreme. Definitely the most blatantly and unapologetically racist piece of fiction I've ever read.

The whole book is a hymn of praise to the antebellum south, how "wonderful" it supposedly was, and how "sad" it is that it's now "gone with the wind." *gag* Enslavers are portrayed as kindly and caring towards the childlike enslaved people in their care, and the enslaved people are either "good" (loyal and grateful servants who stay to serve their white enslavers after the Civil War) or "bad" (ingrates who take off the first chance they get and later become criminals that the KKK is formed to deal with). Yes, there is a love story, but it's all played out against the above backdrop, with white southerners portrayed as the hapless victims of evil Yankees who invade the south and mistreat the white southerners for absolutely no good reason, because everything was just fine the way it was and those damned Yankees should have just minded their own business and left the south alone.

I have no doubt Margaret Mitchell believed what she was writing. She was born in 1900 and grew up listening to the stories of older relatives who had lived through the Civil War and reconstruction. Unfortunately she absorbed a very one-sided version of what happened during those years, along with a white supremacist outlook that insisted black people, as well as whites, were perfectly happy under slavery. That outlook is reflected throughout the book.

Does that mean I think no one should read GWTW? No. Censorship is not something I can get behind. I do, however, feel that the book is not one that I would encourage (pre high school aged) kids to read. The racism in it is so extreme that the book is most suitable for minds that are mature enough to be able to see hiw wrong it is, imo.

Censor the book? Absolutely not. Promote it to kids as something they should go out of their way to read? Not really enthused about that, sorry.