This is one of many, many articles I’ve written about race issues, and I give plenty of time to the present tense elsewhere. History is not irrelevant just because there are seemingly more pressing matters facing POC today (pressing matters I write about all the time). History is why those problems persist. It is not necessary for me to focus solely on 2020 players or life and death topics. If so, what would be the point of historians? But this isn’t even just about history. These two movie characters may not be 2020 men, but one is from a movie that came out last week, and the other is from a movie that people still watch every year, a man people canonize even today. Both are as relevant as anything that happened yesterday. I appreciate your respectful responses, but I still don’t understand why you have a problem with my article. It feels like you entered into this discussion determined to criticize it — first for allegedly encouraging segregation, then for addressing history, which, by the way, is something literature, cinema, and theater do to great acclaim and effect. That is why Hamilton, 12 Years a Slave, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Da 5 Bloods, and Beyonce’s Black Is King exist. We can talk and write about more than George Floyd, Donald Trump, police brutality, and BLM — things I already cover all the time. Anyway, thanks for reading.