Hollywood’s ‘White Saviors’ Still Try To Shape Black Experience in America

Despite the efforts of pioneering directors and screenwriters like Spike Lee, John Singleton, Steve McQueen, and Jordan Peele, Hollywood has a long and torrid history of failing to authentically portray Black figures, their history, and the Black experience in the United States overall. & From Gone with the Wind and other films of the time casting Black actors mainly as domestic help to more recent portrayals of gangbangers and thugs in films like Training Day and American Gangster, Black Americans have been stereotyped and underrepresented for decades with their stories whitewashed and misrepresented on the big screen. & Yet as the old saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the case of former NBA star and civil rights activist Craig Hodges. The former Chicago Bulls shooting guard and three-point specialist made a name for himself off the court as a vocal advocate for racial justice and claims that the NBA blackballed him for his actions. & Now Hodges is currently locked in a bitter dispute with Wayfarer, the production company owned by actor Justin Baldoni and billionaire Steve Sarowitz, over the rights to turn his 2017 biography, “Long Shot: The Triumphs and...