So What If Selma Had "Historical Inaccuracies" from a White Perspective?

This post contains spoilers of the Oscar-nominated film Selma, which everyone should go see. Proceed with caution.

I finally went to see Selma this past weekend, and I was blown away. The film accomplished the extraordinary task of conveying the sense of the racial climate of the era to someone who only knew of the Civil Rights era through history books. And despite some of the historical inaccuracies pointed out by its critics, it is a must-see film that deserves all the awards it has won and the awards that it has been snubbed for.

I understand why there are those who are angry about the portrayal of President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ), even setting aside the white defensiveness and cluelessness that I suspect largely explains the backlash. LBJ was not perfect in his approach to civil rights and his reluctant escalation of the Vietnam War tainted some of his achievements in domestic policy. But while I'm no historian, what I have read about him over the years suggests that he was ultimately committed to civil rights and that he played an important role in the realization of critical civil rights legislation such as the Voting Rights Act (which, of course, the Supreme Court gutted in 2013). So, yes, having LBJ being portrayed as someone who treated voting rights as something that was not as important as his War on Poverty program is a personal disappointment.

But I'm also more than OK with it. Selma is not meant to be a documentary. Nor is it meant to paint LBJ as the enemy. Nor, I don't think, is it supposed to make any bold statement about LBJ and his legacy. I mean, the film is just not about LBJ at all (and it's right to be that way). The film is about Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil rights activists, and other participants (black and white) who were in Alabama that spring, risking their safety and their lives to realize the most fundamental individual right in a democracy. Besides, many incredible biopics have had someone make a fuss about historical inaccuracies, and yet, many of these films have largely escaped being tarnished by factual discrepancies and received extensive recognition. So I honestly have no patience for Selma being bashed for what it "gets wrong" historically.