The 1939 classic Gone With the Wind has been removed from HBO Max following an op-ed from 12 Years a Slave writer John Ridley who said it "romanticizes the horrors of slavery."

Ridley said in his opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times that Gone With the Wind "glorifies the antebellum south. It is a film that, when it is not ignoring the horrors of slavery, pauses only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color."

Gone With the Wind--which takes place on a plantation in Atlanta--has been controversial for years, but new renewed attention came after the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by a white police officer in Minnesota.