Blackface or Just Mud? Hulu Pulls Golden Girls Episode

Some say Hulu has gone too far after the streaming service pulled an episode of the Golden Girls due to a potential blackface controversy. The episode features Betty White's Rose and Rue McClanahan's Blanche wearing mud masks on their faces when they meet a black family for the first time. (The family's daughter is marrying the son of Bea Arthur's Dorothy, who is white.) "This is mud on our faces, we’re not really black," Rose says, per the Hollywood Reporter, which refers to the scene as a "blackface scene." Not everyone agreed: Today notes that some on Twitter were slamming the move as an "overcorrection" from Hulu, and rounds up the negative reaction—much of it coming from black voices.

Among those critics was prominent writer Roxane Gay, who tweeted, "That Golden Girls episode isn’t blackface. What the hell?" before adding, "Removing this episode is weird, counterproductive and stupid. It diminishes the effort to actually end racism. It’s just so dumb." One observer noted on Twitter, "Interesting that they took this down, but the Seinfeld episode where Kramer falls asleep in the tanning bed before going to meet his Black girlfriend's family is still up." (More blackface stories.)