USC’s School of Cinematic Arts will remove an exhibit dedicated to John Wayne after students called for its removal last year because of racist comments the late actor made in a 1971 Playboy magazine interview, the school announced Friday.
Citing a push to promote “anti-racist cultural values,” Evan Hughes, the assistant dean of diversity and inclusion, announced the change in a letter to the school’s community.
“Conversations about systemic racism in our cultural institutions along with the recent global, civil uprising by the Black Lives Matter Movement require that we consider the role our school can play as a change maker in promoting antiracist cultural values and experiences,” Hughes said in the statement. “Therefore, it has been decided that the Wayne Exhibit will be removed.”
In December, the school said it would not remove the exhibit and instead create a space exploring the American West, according the Daily Trojan. A few months before, students protested the Wayne exhibit, stating that by keeping it, the school was “endorsing white supremacy.”
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