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HBO Max Adds Introduction to ‘Blazing Saddles’ About ‘Racist Language’

If you go to watch Mel Brooks’ classic Western spoof Blazing Saddles on HBO Max this weekend, you’ll find something new: An introduction from film scholar and TCM host Jacquline Stewart. This follows HBO Max’s decision to briefly remove the controversial Oscar winner Gone With the Wind from its offerings, and then to make it available again with its own contextualizing intro, also by Stewart.

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Coronavirus pandemic leading to depression and drinking, CDC says

Americans are struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic after months of harsh lockdowns, widespread disease and economic suffering that has fallen disproportionately on the young, minorities and those who are most vulnerable to financial shocks.

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds the number of Americans reporting adverse mental health or behavioral changes — like drinking or drug use — on a perilous rise in recent months.

About a quarter of Americans reported symptoms of an anxiety disorder, three times higher than what a similar survey found a year ago. Those reporting depression has quadrupled, to nearly a quarter.

About 13 percent of Americans said they were drinking or using drugs more because of the stress of the pandemic. And almost 11 percent said they had seriously considered suicide in the last month, including more than a quarter of those between 18 and 24 years old.

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Georgia Store Suggests $20 Refundable Deposit For White Customers To Shop There

A vintage-clothing store in Savannah, Georgia, has come under fire for a promotion they posted on Facebook in which they stated they would require white customers to pay a $20 refundable deposit to book an appointment to browse the store while waiving the fee for people of color.

Civvies on Broughton wrote, “As a mostly white staff with white ownership, we do not feel comfortable upholding a digital and financial barrier which could prevent BIPOC from shopping at our store at this time on top of the limitations already made by online booking.”

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