The word ['nigger'] has been excised from the film I regard as the pinnacle of British cinema, Kind Hearts and Coronets. In a crucial scene, the about-to-be-hanged murderer and his mistress quote the traditional version of the rhyme Eeny, meeny,
miny, moe: it is the moment when he realises that she knows he has murdered several members of his family, and might just murder his wife, too, if the mistress can have him reprieved. A TV channel on which I recently rewatched the film eliminated this
exchange, rather than show a warning that it includes racially offensive language. It is patronising to assume most of us don't know that the past is a foreign country; that they did things then that we are enlightened enough not
to do now. Otherwise, Bowdler-like, we shall according to the latest obsession falsify whatever parts of our heritage culture warriors take exception to. We can't go through life without being offended; but we can and should present our cultural past
honestly and in context, and explain the importance of its integrity.
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