As the country continues to protest for racial equality in the wake of George Floyd's death, Tina Fey has issued a letter to multiple streaming services asking them to remove episodes of 30 Rock that feature Blackface. A total of four episodes of the popular NBC sitcom, which Fey created and starred in, feature scenes the include the offensive makeup.
"As we strive to do the work and do better in regards to race in America, we believe that these episodes featuring actors in race-changing makeup are best taken out of circulation," Fey wrote in her letter to the streaming platforms. "I understand now that ‘intent' is not a free pass for white people to use these images. I apologize for the pain they have caused. Going forward, no comedy-loving kid needs to stumble on these tropes and be stung by their ugliness. I thank NBCUniversal for honoring this request."
According to a report fromVulture, the streaming services, including Hulu, Amazon Prime, iTunes and Google Play, will honor Fey's request and remove the four episodes in question. Some of the episodes have already been removed from the streaming platforms as of Tuesday (June 23).
In addition to the episodes featuring Blackface, Vulture reports that a live episode from season five, which doesn't include any scenes with characters in Blackface, is also being removed. Though not confirmed by Fey or NBC, Vulture speculates this episodes is being removed from streaming for referencing President Trump's racist birther conspiracy theory about President Obama.
NBC is not the first media company to remove or censor racist material from their catalogue. HBO Max removed Gone with the Wind from streaming, while Disney announced they would not include Song of the South on Disney Plus.
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