In reference to the discussion of of B&W in SCHINDLER'S LIST, I don't believe I've seen anyone mention that Spielberg and his photographer (whose name unfortunately escapes me) attribute at least part of their decision to go with b&w to the influence of Roman Vishniac's great book of photographs of Eastern European Jews (A LOST WORLD may the be title?). That still of course begs all the various esthetic/political et al. issues that have been raised, but it may introduce a new line of thought. In addition, in relation to blacks in BIRTH OF A NATION, has anyone considered the relationship between Griffith's film and Keaton's THE GENERAL? In all prints I've seen of the latter, there are only one or two shots at the be- ginning of the film that show any blacks at all. From THE GENERAL as a whole, one would never know that the Civil War had anything to do with slavery! On the other hand, the Brady-like images of the battle at the film's end seem to owe a debt to Griffith's method of emphasizing what passed for historical "veracity," while at the same time Keaton seems to mock BOAN in several ways: notably the character of Annabelle, who is terminally dumb but not a fragile flower of the old South, and in the scene where Keaton bravely snatches the Confederate flag to keep it from falling, only to fall over himself--he had been standing on the back of a cowering Southern officer. The only excerpts of the Production Code I have at hand do not mention this, but as I recall the Code forbade promotion of race hatred ala BOAN (but did not forbid comical and demeaning portrayals of blacks). BTW, in Keaton's COLLEGE, he plays a scene in blackface as he takes the only job he could get to support himself--a waiter in a restaurant. When his race is discovered, he is chased out the the restaurant by the angry black staff armed with cleavers and such. The messages about race in THAT film seem to me to be quite complex!