Southern Discomfort
Directed by Mark Patrick George and Dana Williams (2016)
Film Review
This documentary concerns the white supremacist-linked Civil War monuments and reenactments that continue to dominate life in the Southern US. After touring the South for four years, the filmmakers identified 706 public monuments or statutes glorifying leaders of the Southern Confederacy, as well as 109 schools, 80 counties and ten military bases named after Confederacy heroes. Many Southern cities have streets named after prominent Ku Klux Klan leaders.
Most of the film focuses on Civil War reenactments that occur throughout the South. The reenactment movement developed during the sixties and seventies, in reaction to federal school integration laws.
In addition to interviewing numerous reenactors, the filmmakers interview national park rangers, local officials, Civil War historians and Black residents. The latter deeply resent the use of their tax dollars to glorify what they view as an increasingly white supremacist agenda.
Although most reenactors cite “educating younger generations about history” as their chief motivation for participating in Civil War reenactments, the latter portray a version of history that is more mythological than factual. Not only do they deny that the Civil War had anything to do with slavery,** but they totally erase the role of over 200,000 slaves who abandoned their plantations to fight for the Union Army and Navy.
Moreover it’s also clear that recruiting new members for overtly and covertly white supremacist “heritage” groups is another major goal of these reenactment festivals. One organization, the League of the South, actively promulgates the Great Replacement*** rhetoric espoused by white right terrorists like Dylan Roof and Brenton Tarrant.
The League of the South has its own paramilitary group actively working towards Southern secession from the US.
*Blacks comprise 30% of the population of Lake City Florida, host to the annual Olustee Reenactment.
*Most reenactors give “states rights” and “economic differences” as the true cause of the “War of Northern Aggression.”
**The Great Replacement claims there is a conspiracy to exterminate the white population of Europe and the North America by replacing them with people of color.
The Most Revolutionary Act 
“they deny that the Civil War had anything to do with slavery”
Yes they do. One of the foremost proponents. Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan and prolific political commentator, Paul Craig Roberts.
https://aislec.wordpress.com/2017/08/25/revising-history-the-war-of-northern-aggression/
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Actually it was hearing Roberts express this sentiments on a podcast that caused me to investigate the history. Most of the southern states seceded following Lincoln’s election – even before he was inaugurated and took office. This was due to his campaign platform – which didn’t call for abolishing slavery, but for prohibiting its spread to new western states.
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I’m definitely gonna have to watch this. I think re-enactments can be useful tools to show history outside of a museum trip or a textbook for younger people, but only if you’re gonna get it right.
But the Civil War? And in the Deep South? Uh…we lost that one all the way, so what’s the positive learning experience they’re supposed to get out of it?
Oh wait, this is where that “states’ rights” thing comes in. Funny how when somebody says “the war was fought for states’ rights,” nobody asks the question “and what rights were your state fighting for exactly?” I wonder how much fudging it would take for the states rights-er to put “slavery” on the list.
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Excellent point, Chatty. Nobody asks them exactly what states rights they were fighting for.
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