During Black History Month Amazon stripped a popular documentary on conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, the only black justice currently serving on the Supreme Court, from its streaming service. 

Thomas’ documentary Created Equal was nationally broadcast on PBS last April and has a 99 percent audience approval rating on the popular movie rating website Rotten Tomatoes. On the Amazon website, the film has received a spectacular 4.9 star rating (out of 5 stars) from customer reviews, with 1,243 ratings.

The film's producer and director, Michael Pack of Manifold Productions Inc., has stated that the documentary was pulled from Amazon Prime Video on or around February 8, 2021 meaning it has been unavailable for the better part of Black History Month. 

Despite being ranked the 38th top documentary on the site, a simple search for “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words,” returns no results. To find it, users must include “DVD” in the search box, and the documentary will come up as the 10th result, and even then it is only available for physical purchase!

In contrast, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary, not even rated in the top 100, is easily accessible. A search for “RBG,” will bring three documentaries on Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the top. 

Amazon has not publicly responded to growing public criticism of the move, but Pack confirmed that Amazon stopped streaming the documentary at its own discretion and without providing an explanation. The company built by Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, has only escalated its censorship of conservative voices and viewpoints in recent months. Given that the company has made significant efforts to celebrate black voices during Black History Month, one might think it would embrace the opportunity to continue to stream a documentary about the country's only sitting black Supreme Court justice. However, the company’s actions betray its motivations to only support those viewpoints that support their own.