One of Kentucky's Finest?

Byron Crawford's Sunday column in the C-J was a reminder that race in America is a waltz: two steps forward, one step back (sometimes the reverse). Even with Obama making history (and a 10 to 13 point lead in New Hampshire), it's still necessary to pause and celebrate one of Kentucky's finest, D.W. Griffith, a filmmaker whose notoriously racist propaganda flick, Birth of a Nation, yearned for a time when the darkies knew their place.

I'm not surprised. I can recall the crocodile tears and uproar over actor Jon Voight's portrayal of another well-known bigot, UK basketball coach Adolph Rupp, in the movie Glory Road.

Crawford's column briefly mentions the controversy over Birth of a Nation but quickly returns to the biographical bj of the Oldham County born Griffith. No mention that it helped reignite the KKK. No mention of the protests and outrage that followed its premiere. No mention of its dehumanizing images. No mention of it being completely ahistoric (The Chronicles of Narnia is closer to historical or non-fiction than Birth). But if Rev. Louis Coleman (the L'ville version of Al Sharpton) & Co. grabbed their bullhorns and surrounded the C-J in protest (a futile gesture that I'm not calling for), they'd be accused of trying to "sanitize" history.