# Should we Mourn the death of Olivia de Havilland **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 27, 2020, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455 "2020-07-27T06:54:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/102 "2020-07-27T14:39:58Z")
de-Haviland played a very sympathetic character in GWTW. She had probably, the least offensive role in that film . She also had a part in "Roots " and the movie “The North and South”, I don’t know the characters she played in either. I do know she was a fine actress in many, many films. I don’t know what was in her heart, therefore I don’t know her stand on racism/equality. It’s a movie, folks. Not a history lesson. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/103 "2020-07-27T14:43:48Z")
Glad to hear it, but also seriously, it isn’t unreasonable for people to wonder where this is all going to end when there is no particularly defined requirement for what gets removed, and both major cultural figures and fairly recent [popular comedy shows](https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2020-06-11/netflix-removed-little-britain-chris-lilley/) have got the axe. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/104 "2020-07-27T14:54:49Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > Glad to hear it, but also seriously, it isn’t unreasonable for people to wonder where this is all going to end when there is no particularly defined requirement for what gets removed, and both major cultural figures and fairly recent [popular comedy shows](https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2020-06-11/netflix-removed-little-britain-chris-lilley/) have got the axe You are citing cases, as was the OP, in which the requirements were clearly defined and applied, The requirements were that the decision would be made by the rightful owners of the material because they felt like it, and they didn’t have to ask you or anyone else about it. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/105 "2020-07-27T15:00:26Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Bickering with yourself is rarely going to be an effective strategy for convincing other’s that their point of view is wrong and yours is right. I don’t think that’s they’re goal here. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/106 "2020-07-27T15:05:28Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > Glad to hear it, but also seriously, it isn’t unreasonable for people to wonder where this is all going to end when there is no particularly defined requirement for what gets removed, and both major cultural figures and fairly recent [popular comedy shows](https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2020-06-11/netflix-removed-little-britain-chris-lilley/) have got the axe. Reasonable people understand that media conglomerates make the decisions which going to make them the most money, and nobody (not you, not me, and definitely not the government) gets to tell them they’re not allowed to remove or recontextualize films or shows that many of their viewers find offensive. That’s how a free society operates. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/107 "2020-07-27T15:06:18Z")
I lol’d ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/108 "2020-07-27T15:06:50Z")
> [@kswiss](#): > > Is an Actress, who participated in a horribly racist (by todays standards) film, guilty as much as any other person who participated in horribly racist activities (by todays standards) in their time? Is a human, who participated in a horribly racist (by today’s standards) society guilty as much as any other person who participated in horribly racist activities (by today’s standards) in their time? Define “horribly racist”. Define “guilty”. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/109 "2020-07-27T15:19:16Z")
kswiss, I’m detecting an undercurrent of insincerity here in your posts. Either step up your game in this thread or I’m sending it to the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/110 "2020-07-27T15:25:09Z")
She had an opportunity to be in a movie with a good cast and make some money. So, for that, we should condemn her as a human being? The fact that she was performing in a movie doesn’t brand her as a horrible person. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/111 "2020-07-27T15:33:04Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Reasonable people understand that media conglomerates make the decisions which going to make them the most money, and nobody (not you, not me, and definitely not the government) gets to tell them they’re not allowed to remove or recontextualize films or shows that many of their viewers find offensive. > > That’s how a free society operates. So unaccountable media conglomerates are in charge of what content we are allowed to watch and no one should complain about it? That seems… strangely dystopian. There’s plenty of countries in the world that are homophobic, many are becoming more so. If Netflix decides to remove all shows with gay characters in those countries because their viewers find it offensive, you’d be good with that? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/112 "2020-07-27T15:36:21Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > So unaccountable media conglomerates are in charge of what content we are allowed to watch and no one should complain about it? That seems… strangely dystopian. Both parts of that first sentence are false, which sorts of steps on the second sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/113 "2020-07-27T15:40:32Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > She had an opportunity to be in a movie with a good cast and make some money. So, for that, we should condemn her as a human being? The fact that she was performing in a movie doesn’t brand her as a horrible person. Where did anyone actually say they believed anything like that? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/114 "2020-07-27T15:41:03Z")
If unaccountable media conglomerates are allowed to take away our beloved black-face then they may decide to remove all shows with gay characters??? WTF! CMC ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/115 "2020-07-27T15:41:30Z")
The amount of times I see “This content is not available in your location” tends to disagree with you. How about my second paragraph? If Polish Netflix removed all shows with gay characters, would you shrug and say “the decision was be made by the rightful owners of the material because they felt like it, and they didn’t have to ask you or anyone else about it”? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/116 "2020-07-27T15:43:21Z")
> [@kswiss](#): > > Let’s cut to chase here. “Gone with the Wind” is a “racist” movie, Olivia de Havilland participated in a racist movie. Therefore Olivia de Havilland is a racist. Anyone alive doing anything at all in 1939 when the movie came out was participating in a racist society even more racist than our current one. So everyone back then, without exception, was a racist, and so on back through all of human history. Deal with it. I, for one, am not ready to burn down the world and civilization in some bizarre attempt to atone for millennia of wrongness. Much more productive would be to concentrate on improving the present and future. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/117 "2020-07-27T15:48:18Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I, for one, am not ready to burn down the world and civilization in some bizarre attempt to atone for millennia of wrongness. Much more productive would be to concentrate on improving the present and future. Then you are not the strawman the OP is looking for. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/118 "2020-07-27T15:49:47Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > The amount of times I see “This content is not available in your location” tends to disagree with you. > > How about my second paragraph? If Polish Netflix removed all shows with gay characters, would you shrug and say “the decision was be made by the rightful owners of the material because they felt like it, and they didn’t have to ask you or anyone else about it” Yes, if the decision was made by the rightful owners of the material because they feel like it. That is the law here and by international agreement. The alternative is having the government or mobs controlling what the rightful owners of material do with their property. I don’t know if that’s what you want but you made this claim: > [@DemonTree](#): > > no particularly defined requirement for what gets removed But there is a clearly defined requirement for what gets removed and it’s been applied. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/119 "2020-07-27T15:53:08Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > If unaccountable media conglomerates are allowed to take away our beloved black-face then they may decide to remove all shows with gay characters??? WTF! Sigh. Do you think it’s fine for media companies to remove content their viewers find offensive, or not? Bearing in mind that different people have _very_ different ideas about what is offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/120 "2020-07-27T15:55:07Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > Do you think it’s fine for media companies to remove content their viewers find offensive, or not? What do YOU think? ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455/121 "2020-07-27T15:56:30Z")
If they own the material, or are hosting it on their platform, and they make the decision to remove it- yes. It’s fine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-mourn-the-death-of-olivia-de-havilland/916455.md?page=7)