Difficult to rate this movie

i watched it last night for the first time, and I am still not quite sure just what to make of the movie. I don't know if I liked it, I'm not sure if it's a masterpiece or a racist piece of cinematic history,... I just don't know! How can I give it a high rating without it seeming like I condone that horrible behavior (I've never seen so many actors in blackface before... In a serious setting) or such untruths.

Yes, I can plainly see that this was [and is] a hugely influential film that reaches epic proportion, and that Griffiths set the bar very high for filmmakers to follow in creating cohesive and quality work, but at the same time, I knew what I was watching is not okay. It is not okay to put an entire race of people in light such as Griffiths cast on African American people. I wasn't exactly
offended, but I was still a bit shocked to SEE it. To see racism before America tried to set right by all those wronged by hateful prejudice.

Lillian Gish went to the grave denying the racism. She was wrong. Very wrong.

Yet also, the movie is good! It's not a horrible movie. I enjoyed it as what it was, and it is indeed a classic, but at what point do you say, Classic or not, this movie has done DAMAGE of irrefutable harm to the mindset of citizens for years and years after its release?! BOAN revived the KKK. How terrible that fact is. What could have happened if this movie was not made?

So surely you can understand the predicament I am in. How do you rate this movie? Why!?

If you reply, BE CIVIL. Arguing does nothing but fuel the fire of hatred our country seems to wallow in in these cyber/internet times.