Thread by @owasow, I teach a class on film & politics. One week focuses on [...]

I teach a class on film & politics. One week focuses on the rise of the contemporary White Power movement and related political violence. I want to share the main reading and two documentaries we studied, as I think they help illuminate some of the dynamics of this moment.

Our main text was Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, by @kathleen_belew (which I highly recommend). 2/ https://www.amazon.com/Bring-War-Home-Movement-Paramilitary/dp/0674286073

Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America

Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America

https://www.amazon.com/Bring-War-Home-Movement-Paramilitary/dp/0674286073

A key insight from the book is that a subset of veterans felt betrayed both by the government’s handling of the Vietnam War and by the federal government’s commitment to civil rights for Blacks and Asian Americans. 3/

In this worldview, the government either supported White people and their interests or, in a direct threat to White people, was aligned with non-Whites. The ideology is often described as anti-government but it’s actually against a state that doesn’t privilege White concerns. 4/

For a more visceral sense of how White Power ideologies can turn into violence, we watched the documentary Oklahoma City. The film traces Timothy McVeigh’s path from US soldier to leader of the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history. 5/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/oklahoma-city/

Oklahoma City | American Experience | PBS

Explores how a series of deadly encounters between American citizens and federal law enforcement — including the standoffs at Ruby Ridge and Waco — led to the the worst act of domestic terrorism in...

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/oklahoma-city/

Finally, we also watched Frontline: Documenting Hate - Charlottesville, directed by Richard Rowley. @ACinvestigates does a remarkable job reporting on the White supremacists & neo-Nazis involved in the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally. 6/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/documenting-hate-charlottesville/

Documenting Hate: Charlottesville

FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate the white supremacists and neo-Nazis involved in the 2017 Charlottesville rally.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/documenting-hate-charlottesville/

When far-right activists engage in vigilante violence or domestic terror, the media often describes them as “lone wolves.” @kathleen_belew makes clear that’s a mistake. White Power is a social movement. When violence erupts, we need to ask “Where were they radicalized?” /fin

For anyone interested, a few additional texts. This superb history in @tabletmag provides context for the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue. For the contemporary part, skip to ”The modern story of the terrorist far right must focus on one individual…” https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/pennsylvanias-dark-history-of-hate

Pennsylvania’s Dark History of Hate

How did it happen here? The horror in Squirrel Hill seems doubly unthinkable, in a state not noted for extremism, and even more in a city that has long boasted its wide-ranging multiethnic cooperat...

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/pennsylvanias-dark-history-of-hate

Arlie Russell Hochschild’s research is not about the White Power movement but does help shed light on some of Trump’s broader appeal to many Whites who feel like the government is no longer on their side. See what Hochschild calls the “deep story.” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/trump-white-blue-collar-supporters/

This striking article by @danielduane helps remind us White supremacy was a national project: ”Between 1850 and 1861, California government spent an ~$1.5 million reimbursing bounty hunters and militias for deliberate mass murder of Native Californians.” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/28/opinion/sunday/surf-racism.html

Opinion | The Long, Strange Tale of California’s Surf Nazis

When I set out to become a surfer, I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/28/opinion/sunday/surf-racism.html

My research is not about White Power but does speak to the role of state-aligned White vigilante violence in opposition to the civil rights movement. https://twitter.com/owasow/status/1265709670892580869

https://twitter.com/owasow/status/1265709670892580869

There have been some great suggestions in response to this thread so I’m going to extend it with additional crowdsourced readings, films and podcasts. @Saintsman3 recommends the incomparable W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk. https://twitter.com/Saintsman3/status/1300238627566428165

https://twitter.com/Saintsman3/status/1300238627566428165

My friend Alex recommended Rising Out of Hatred by Eli Saslow. It documents the spread of white-supremacist ideas ”through the intensely personal saga of one man who eventually disavowed everything he was taught to believe, at tremendous personal cost.” https://bookshop.org/books/rising-out-of-hatred-the-awakening-of-a-former-white-nationalist/9780525434955

Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, the powerful story of how a prominent white supremacist changed his heart and mind Derek Black grew up at the epicenter of white nationalism. His father...

https://bookshop.org/books/rising-out-of-hatred-the-awakening-of-a-former-white-nationalist/9780525434955

A couple people recommended @Deeyah_Khan’s “White Right: A Muslim Filmmaker Confronts Members of the New ‘White Right‘”.

. @Whataboutista suggested “American Patriot: Inside the Armed Uprising Against the Federal Government” https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/american-patriot-inside-the-armed-uprising-against-the-federal-government/

American Patriot: Inside the Armed Uprising Against the Federal

FRONTLINE investigates how the Bundy family’s fight against the federal government invigorated armed militias and “patriot” groups — helping them grow to levels not seen in decades.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/american-patriot-inside-the-armed-uprising-against-the-federal-government/

. @sivavaid recommends two podcasts:
— Democracy in Danger in which he & @WillHitchUVA interview @kathleen_belew (up second week of Sept) https://twitter.com/sivavaid/status/1300127221873602562
— ”the entire podcast series by @pastpunditry…the gold standard for documentary podcasts” https://twitter.com/sivavaid/status/1300127619665612800

https://twitter.com/sivavaid/status/1300127221873602562

. @JessicaScott09 recommends James William Gibson’s Warrior Dreams as well as Leonard Zeskind’s Blood and Politics. https://www.amazon.com/Warrior-Dreams-Violence-Manhood-Post-Vietnam/dp/0809015781

Warrior Dreams: Violence and Manhood in Post-Vietnam America

Warrior Dreams: Violence and Manhood in Post-Vietnam America

https://www.amazon.com/Warrior-Dreams-Violence-Manhood-Post-Vietnam/dp/0809015781

. @e_Rigby71 helpfully offers a few recommendations: “The Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited the Battle for Civil Rights, captures the backdrop to this prescient clash between human rights, freedom of speech, and a changing media landscape.” https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/birth-of-a-movement/

Birth of a Movement | Film about Controversy Around D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation | Independent...

Birth of a Movement: How William M. Trotter, editor of a Boston black newspaper, helped launch protest in 1915 to ban D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation.

https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/birth-of-a-movement/

Also via @e_Rigby71, “The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, Jane Elliott, a teacher in a small, all-white Iowa town, divided her third-grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and gave them a daring lesson in discrimination.” https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/class-divided/

A Class Divided

The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, third-grade teacher Jane Elliott gave her class an unforgettable lesson in discrimination.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/class-divided/

Last batch of generous suggestions from @e_Rigby71:

— Race: The Power of an Illusion, specifically Episode 3
https://racepowerofanillusion.org/episodes/three

— Welcome to Leith, https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/welcome-to-leith/

— Reveal podcast series on hate, https://www.revealnews.org/topic/hate/

Welcome to Leith | Documentary about White Supremacists in North Dakota | Independent Lens | PBS

Welcome to Leith chronicles the struggles of a tiny North Dakota town against the plans of notorious white supremacist Craig Cobb.

https://racepowerofanillusion.org/episodes/three

. @GeraldineMoriba is the host & producer of a new podcast Sounds Like Hate, “an audio documentary series about the dangers and peril of everyday people who engage in extremism, and ways to disengage them from a life of hatred.” https://soundslikehate.org

A fav of mine: ”In 1965, Rev. James Reeb was murdered in Selma. Three men were tried & acquitted, but no one was ever held to account. Fifty yrs later, two journalists return to city where it happened & expose lies that kept the murder from being solved…” https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510343/white-lies

White Lies

In 1965, Rev. James Reeb was murdered in Selma, Alabama. Three men were tried and acquitted, but no one was ever held to account. Fifty years later, two journalists from Alabama return to the city...

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510343/white-lies

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