Southern Discomfort: Rewriting Civil War History

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.

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*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.

NZ Mosque Shooter Either Ex-Military or Trained by Ex-Military?

In my view, the most lucid commentary on yesterday’s mosque shooting in Christchurch comes from international security analyst Dr Paul G Buchanan, director of 36th Parallel Assessments. The latter is a non-partisan non-governmental geopolitical risk and strategic analysis consultancy located in Auckland, New Zealand.

Buchanan, an American expatriate, is a former intelligence and defense policy analyst and consultant to US government security agencies.

As quoted in a Radio New Zealand interview, Buchanan points out that automatic and semi-automatic weapons are extremely hard to come by in New Zealand without a license. “The weapon, from what I can tell, may have been modified. It takes some technical skills to modify a hunting weapon into something that’s semi-automatic. [The shooter] had high capacity magazines and may have used a bump stock which was used by the Las Vegas shooter.

Buchanana adds that the shooter’s skill set indicates he is either ex-military or has learned from someone else who might be ex-military.

His comments also suggest New Zealand intelligence dropped the ball in devoting the  “bulk of” of intelligence gathering and prevention efforts at New Zealand’s Islamic community, rather than right-wing extremists.

“Let’s be very clear,” he continues, “Christchurch has a very active white supremacist (ie anti-Maori, anti Muslim, anti-immigrant) community. A community that has attacked refugees and people of color on multiple occasions over the last 20 years. This is the worst of them.”

Buchanan also mentions the shooter was on numerous global right-wing platforms,  including the platform that was used by the synagogue shooter in Pittsburgh last year.

“Why wasn’t he flagged earlier and this whole episode prevented?” he asks.

After several close encounters with the overt anti-Maori racism pervasive in New Zealand’s law enforcement community, I feel compelled to ask the question more directly: Do NZ security services fail to monitor and clamp down on right wing white supremacists because they possibly share some of the same views?

For me the most distressing aspect of this atrocity is Brenton Tarrant (the alleged shooter), who livestreamed the shootings on social media, being cheered on by at least 100 white supremacists worldwide, including a number who live in New Zealand.

Tarrant was arraigned in court this morning on a charge of murder.