BIRTH OF A SEXIST, RACIST NATION

To the Editors of The Crimson:

"Birth of a Nation" was every bit as bad as I expected it to be. The unspeakable racism coupled with the undeniable power of the movie (which is indeed a classic in more ways than one) made an eloquent case for the need for the context which Prof. Scott's talk provided.

But I felt there was one point which wasn't made throughout the whole controversy. While the racism of the movie was something of a phenomenon, the incredible sexism was simply par for the course! If we attempted to put into context every film which contained such disgusting and degrading stereotypes of women, the film societies would just have to start making their own movies.

In addition to the usual fainting, helpless white flower of the South, no one who was at the movie could have missed the domineering, castrating, Big Black Mama who floors black men with a single blow, and takes two soldiers out of action simply by throwing herself to the ground on top of them.

Hopefully everyone who was at the movie will have learned something, not just about racism, but also about the galling multiple insults and injuries which American society offers to our black and Third World sisters every day. Laura M. Burns