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  • 1 day ago
The Neutral Ground 2021
Transcript
00:00:15In July, I came before this City Council to request the relocation of four Confederate
00:00:21monuments that are occupying prominent spaces in the city of New Orleans.
00:00:28We have the opportunity to show the world that we as New Orleanians and Southerners are
00:00:33able to bring our community together, and to do it, we must reckon with our past.
00:00:38Let's take down these statutes and put them in a place of proper remembrance, not reverence.
00:00:45Thank you all so much.
00:00:46God bless all of you.
00:00:51This is a knee-jerk reaction to an unspeakable tragedy that took place in Charleston, South
00:00:58Carolina, that's causing race problems that haven't even occurred in this city for decades.
00:01:05It is amazing.
00:01:06In 2015, I'm fighting Robert E. Lee.
00:01:09This is, it's almost hilarious.
00:01:12Why are we even talking about this?
00:01:15Those statutes should have been down a long time ago.
00:01:19In fact, they never should have been erected.
00:01:21The South lost.
00:01:22We think it's really important to face the history of whiteness in this country.
00:01:27What I'm hearing today is a lot of distortion of history.
00:01:31The New Orleans I grew up in was one, my family.
00:01:35I didn't know the difference of black and white.
00:01:40The so-called Civil War wasn't about slavery.
00:01:44The war between the states was about succession, not about slavery.
00:01:49How the hell are we in a black city, 68% black or some, discussing if we gonna let them
00:01:57remind us of our damn subjugation every day?
00:02:03First, I want to speak to the whole idea of oppression.
00:02:06Oppression is when a tourist comes to New Orleans and gets violently attacked with CBD
00:02:10and gets his face kicked in by a couple of thugs.
00:02:14That's oppression.
00:02:15That's subjugation.
00:02:16This is not just a conversation about monuments.
00:02:20It is a precursor to the ongoing conversation that we should be having about equity.
00:02:27They're an inanimate object.
00:02:28They're not carrying forward the hatred and the racism and the oppression of our opponents here.
00:02:35If you take out these monuments as nuisances, you really need to nuke the city of New Orleans completely.
00:02:43We are not terrorists.
00:02:45We do not destroy the past.
00:02:48We are not allowing this to deteriorate.
00:02:52It is Muslims, Jacobins and communists who have bent on destroying memory and rewriting the past.
00:02:57It should be clear to everyone north and south that it is not, that it is not, that it is
00:03:06not sensitivity.
00:03:08Where do we stop with all this?
00:03:10Do we go all the way to Washington and take down every memorial there?
00:03:13Yes!
00:03:15This is our history!
00:03:19This is our history!
00:03:29These organizations, they say that these monuments, they should stay up, they should be protected, because they are a part
00:03:35of the city's history.
00:03:38How long have you been working with this company?
00:03:41Not long. I mean, I've known Darcy forever, and we've worked together on different projects.
00:03:46But this came together just watching, like, literally right the day of the hearing, being like,
00:03:52Is anyone making a documentary about this? This is really crazy.
00:03:54Awesome. All right. So what's your first project?
00:03:56Yeah.
00:03:57Nice.
00:03:58Eight years before I picked up this microphone, clearly not the right kind of microphone for this situation,
00:04:03I moved to New Orleans to become a middle school teacher and eventually an adult comedian.
00:04:12It's been weird growing up, like, looking like black, question mark, you know, just like kind of black.
00:04:18Because all my material and, like, the things I'm interested in on stage are, like, very black.
00:04:23But I feel like audiences hear that material and they're like, who is this fragile Mexican teenager?
00:04:30So when the time came for the city council to make a monumental decision,
00:04:35I rose to meet that moment with a YouTube video.
00:04:39An urgent historical rendering that can only be described as a janky imitation of late night television.
00:04:46What do you think of taking the existing monuments, making them very small?
00:04:50I would say if you're going to go to all that trouble to shrink them.
00:04:54I don't have the technology.
00:04:55Okay, you don't have it.
00:04:56It's never been divisive.
00:04:58A group of people have made it divisive.
00:05:00Does the racial division that you're feeling now feel bigger or smaller than the racial division Lee would have wanted
00:05:08to go to war for?
00:05:10You were saying plaques that could explain things.
00:05:12And you tell me if this wording works for you.
00:05:14Hi, I'm Robert E. Lee.
00:05:16A long time ago, I turned on my country and led over 200,000 Southern sons to their graves
00:05:21so that we could keep our basic right to own human beings as property.
00:05:25Hashtag, sorry, I'm not sorry.
00:05:28That doesn't sound very good.
00:05:32One of the cool things about Confederate monuments,
00:05:35technically the only cool thing,
00:05:38is that they give us a concrete way to talk about race.
00:05:44And growing up black and Filipino,
00:05:47I've always been deeply fascinated by the dynamics of race.
00:05:51No.
00:05:52There was a time in your life when you didn't even know you were black.
00:05:56Okay, but basically from that point on,
00:05:59I think I've been very interested.
00:06:01No, no, not even that.
00:06:03There was a point after that when you denied that you were black
00:06:07and did everything you could to change yourself into appearing to be white.
00:06:12But after that, I was very interested in race and being black, I would say.
00:06:19No, not even then.
00:06:20Basically after that.
00:06:22Well, long time after that.
00:06:23It was like a steady progression.
00:06:27At Milton?
00:06:29Yeah, in high school.
00:06:30An all-white school?
00:06:31It's not an all-white school.
00:06:33Predominantly white school.
00:06:35Okay.
00:06:35Overwhelmingly white school of rich preppy kids.
00:06:39And you were...
00:06:40Some of us thinking deeply about race.
00:06:42Well, that's not true.
00:06:44When I came to your school as a guest on Martin Luther King Day
00:06:47and talked about lynching...
00:06:48Let's pause for a second.
00:06:49You were horrified.
00:06:49Let's just pause for a second.
00:06:50What would be an appropriate topic for Martin Luther King Day's speech?
00:06:54The triumph of diversity, civil rights.
00:06:58You came to my school and told all the white kids
00:07:01that someone in their family had probably lynched someone.
00:07:04Yeah.
00:07:05I wanted you to know.
00:07:07I wanted you to understand.
00:07:08Because you didn't understand you were black.
00:07:10So I had to force this...
00:07:12But it's something...
00:07:13To shock you into thinking...
00:07:15It's something...
00:07:16You were black.
00:07:17Accept your blackness.
00:07:18See the history of your blackness.
00:07:20See what these white people have done to us.
00:07:23That's it.
00:07:24I don't think it was about showing me that I was black.
00:07:26It was about showing me about the violence of white supremacy.
00:07:30Yeah.
00:07:30And the lie about erasing it.
00:07:33Right.
00:07:33That the thing that you would get most animated about
00:07:36is not that this happened.
00:07:37But this happened and nobody talks about it.
00:07:40And nobody's willing to talk about it.
00:07:42Which is why I talked about it at your Martin Luther King Day celebration.
00:07:47Martin Luther King was raised in an environment
00:07:49where lynching was common.
00:07:52I said, probably none of you even know what that means.
00:07:55much less do you have any knowledge of your relatives' involvement in it.
00:08:00But when you're...
00:08:02But I'm just picturing being a school administrator.
00:08:05When your great-grandparents die
00:08:07and you have to go to their house
00:08:10and clean out their attic
00:08:12or their basement,
00:08:14you're probably going to find, among other things,
00:08:16little vials
00:08:19of alcohol
00:08:20you know, in which there is a shriveled black item,
00:08:27which could be a finger
00:08:29or a toe.
00:08:30The charred souvenirs of this dead black man who they had lynched,
00:08:34which they have obviously held on to
00:08:38and preserved this for generations.
00:08:42And when you find it,
00:08:43what are you going to do?
00:08:45What are you going to say?
00:08:56Growing up,
00:08:57that was breakfast table talk.
00:08:59Probably why I'm a lunch guy
00:09:01and why I view history as an attic
00:09:04full of racial horrors
00:09:05that we've inherited
00:09:07and most of us would rather not go into.
00:09:10So when I moved to New Orleans,
00:09:12I was, uh, surprised
00:09:13to find this city's darkest souvenirs
00:09:16are not hidden in the attic.
00:09:18They're just out,
00:09:20like in the living room.
00:09:24On the city's highest pedestal,
00:09:26Robert E. Lee.
00:09:27The blacks are immeasurably better off here
00:09:29than in Africa.
00:09:30The painful discipline they are undergoing
00:09:32is necessary for their instruction
00:09:34as a race.
00:09:39Okay.
00:09:41Moving on.
00:09:47Waving good morning to all the joggers,
00:09:49the president of the Confederacy,
00:09:51Jefferson Davis.
00:09:53African slavery,
00:09:54as it exists in the United States,
00:09:56is a moral,
00:09:57a social,
00:09:58and a political blessing.
00:10:05Anyways.
00:10:07Guarding city park,
00:10:08there's PGT Beauregard,
00:10:10the Confederate general
00:10:11who fired the opening shot of the war.
00:10:15And then,
00:10:17there's this monument,
00:10:18dedicated to the White League,
00:10:20which is exactly what it sounds like.
00:10:23A white supremacist militia
00:10:24with a dream to one day...
00:10:26Teach the blacks
00:10:27to beware of further insolence
00:10:30and aggression.
00:10:38That day came in 1874,
00:10:40when the White League
00:10:41tried to overthrow
00:10:42Louisiana's interracial government
00:10:44by storming the statehouse
00:10:45and killing police officers
00:10:47in the street.
00:10:48As a consequence
00:10:49for this violent coup,
00:10:51these men received
00:10:53a monument,
00:10:54right in the middle
00:10:56of the neutral ground.
00:11:03In New Orleans,
00:11:04the neutral ground's
00:11:04just the name
00:11:05for that grassy median
00:11:06between two streets.
00:11:07It's where neighbors
00:11:08meet up to barbecue
00:11:09and get drunk
00:11:10and on occasion
00:11:11catch cheap necklaces
00:11:12hurled at them
00:11:13by strangers in masks.
00:11:19The neutral ground
00:11:20is supposed to be
00:11:21a space for everyone.
00:11:24So,
00:11:24if you're wondering
00:11:25why a majority black city,
00:11:26responsible for so many
00:11:28of the black things you love,
00:11:29fills its common spaces
00:11:30with tributes
00:11:31to slave owners
00:11:32and the White League,
00:11:34well,
00:11:35your question
00:11:35is right on time.
00:11:37I call the question.
00:11:40I have a motion.
00:11:41I've moved.
00:11:42It's been seconded
00:11:43by Councilmember Brossett.
00:11:44I call the question.
00:11:53Six yays,
00:11:54one day.
00:12:03After three hours of debate,
00:12:05all but one council member
00:12:06voted in favor
00:12:07of removing the statues.
00:12:09The vote is considered
00:12:10one of the most sweeping moves
00:12:11by a U.S. city
00:12:12to cut ties
00:12:13with Confederate history.
00:12:16This is not something
00:12:17that I just kind of came up with
00:12:18out of the blue.
00:12:19It came to me
00:12:21through Wynton this time.
00:12:22Wynton Marcellus
00:12:23is a friend of mine,
00:12:24always has been.
00:12:25And he said to me,
00:12:26have you ever thought
00:12:27about that monument
00:12:30from my perspective?
00:12:32He stopped me in my tracks
00:12:33and I said,
00:12:34no, I didn't.
00:12:35He just said,
00:12:36why don't you just think about it?
00:12:37And I said, I will.
00:12:39Sitting in city council chambers,
00:12:42how long did you think
00:12:44that the removal would take?
00:12:45Three months.
00:12:46Three months,
00:12:47four months at most.
00:12:49I'd hope they'd come down
00:12:50that night.
00:12:51I'd hope that there were
00:12:52cranes and individuals
00:12:55poised to do that work.
00:12:57It would have immediately
00:12:58delivered what was decided.
00:13:01We can build
00:13:02more than one high-rise
00:13:03in this town at one time,
00:13:05so certainly we should have
00:13:06been able to take down
00:13:08a couple of statues.
00:13:09But that's not what happened.
00:13:10It's not what happened.
00:13:24Four groups are seeking
00:13:25a federal injunction
00:13:26to stop the city
00:13:27from moving forward
00:13:28with the removal process.
00:13:30So ultimately,
00:13:31these monuments
00:13:31will stay in place
00:13:32until the merits
00:13:33of this case are heard.
00:13:42Backlash over a plan
00:13:43to remove these
00:13:43prominent monuments
00:13:44has led to death threats,
00:13:46intimidation,
00:13:46and even what may have been
00:13:48the intentional torching
00:13:49of a contractor's Lamborghini.
00:13:52Sue you in the daytime,
00:13:53bomb your car at night.
00:13:54That felt like
00:13:56classic white supremacy.
00:13:58Right.
00:13:58That's straight out
00:13:59of the greatest hit.
00:14:00Straight out of the greatest hit,
00:14:01straight out of the 1940s,
00:14:0350s, and 60s,
00:14:04and that's what makes racism
00:14:06and the terrorism
00:14:07so pervasive
00:14:07of the deep south
00:14:08of the 1940s and 50s
00:14:10and of today.
00:14:11is it comes from all levels,
00:14:13all ages,
00:14:14all socioeconomic groups.
00:14:17Even after growing up
00:14:19in a house like mine,
00:14:19I could send a picture
00:14:20of a lynched person,
00:14:22naked, burnt,
00:14:24hung on a postcard.
00:14:26I didn't expect
00:14:26to witness the type
00:14:28of massive white resistance
00:14:29that made me feel
00:14:30like we were all living
00:14:31in a history book.
00:14:33Every day,
00:14:34it became clearer
00:14:35that this fight
00:14:36over four monuments
00:14:37wasn't going to fit
00:14:38in a YouTube video,
00:14:39and that to actually
00:14:41understand where
00:14:42this fight comes from
00:14:43and where it's taking us.
00:14:45The questions I was asking...
00:14:46Would you be willing
00:14:47to just take PGT
00:14:48off the horse,
00:14:49keep the horse?
00:14:50Wow.
00:14:51Jeff Davis,
00:14:52king of the birds.
00:14:53I'm not ready for this one.
00:14:55We're going to have
00:14:56to become real.
00:15:12So we're going to do
00:15:13everything we can
00:15:14to keep our monuments up.
00:15:15I feel like we've got
00:15:16the majority
00:15:17of New Orleanians behind us.
00:15:19So are you going
00:15:20to the fourth on the state side
00:15:22and the fifth on the federal?
00:15:23I'm not sure
00:15:24of all of those places
00:15:25and terms,
00:15:26but we're going to pursue
00:15:27this as best...
00:15:28We're going to pursue
00:15:30it as every legal option
00:15:32we can.
00:15:33So your task force
00:15:35is basically preserves
00:15:36these monuments
00:15:36and restores them,
00:15:37the historic value of them.
00:15:39However, a lot of people
00:15:40say they have racial
00:15:40undertones.
00:15:42What are your thoughts
00:15:42on that?
00:15:43I don't really know
00:15:43how to address that.
00:15:48The city of New Orleans
00:15:49has dozens and dozens
00:15:51of monuments, symbols,
00:15:52school names, street names,
00:15:54all after white supremacists,
00:15:56former Confederate soldiers
00:15:57and generals
00:15:57and people who were
00:15:58slave owners
00:15:58and what have you.
00:15:59Can't scream Black Lives Matter
00:16:00if you live in a city
00:16:01where everything around you
00:16:03is telling you
00:16:03that they don't.
00:16:05Tick and Dall Nola
00:16:05is a coalition
00:16:06of organizers, activists,
00:16:09all united
00:16:10under removing
00:16:10all symbols
00:16:11of white supremacy
00:16:11in the city of New Orleans.
00:16:13And the activism
00:16:13around getting these things
00:16:14removed goes back
00:16:15to 1973.
00:16:16It took us
00:16:18as black organizers,
00:16:19black activists,
00:16:20to say,
00:16:20you know what?
00:16:20There's something wrong
00:16:21with this.
00:16:21We can do something
00:16:22about this.
00:16:23What do you say
00:16:24to all those people
00:16:26who say that
00:16:27Confederate monuments
00:16:28are just military monuments?
00:16:29They have nothing
00:16:30to do with white supremacy.
00:16:32Look up the statements
00:16:33of the states that seceded.
00:16:34Look up what was said
00:16:35by South Carolina.
00:16:37Look up what was said
00:16:38by the vice president
00:16:39of the Confederacy.
00:16:40The documents said
00:16:41we seceded
00:16:42because of slavery.
00:16:44Consult the documents.
00:16:47Okay.
00:16:48Here we go.
00:16:50To consult the documents,
00:16:52I went to the
00:16:52Capitol of the Confederacy.
00:16:54Richmond, Virginia
00:16:55has a whole avenue
00:16:57just for Confederate monuments
00:16:59and for some reason
00:17:00African-American
00:17:01tennis legend
00:17:02Arthur Ashe.
00:17:03Y'all could have put me
00:17:04on any other street.
00:17:06Richmond also has a museum
00:17:07that examines the Civil War
00:17:09from all sides.
00:17:11So what caused
00:17:12the Civil War?
00:17:12Was it fraud
00:17:13over who had
00:17:14the most power?
00:17:15The states
00:17:16or the federal government?
00:17:18Or was it simply
00:17:18a fight over money
00:17:20and different cultures?
00:17:21Or was it slavery?
00:17:24Supposed the button
00:17:25that matches
00:17:25what you think
00:17:26was the main cause
00:17:27of the Civil War.
00:17:30Looking at the
00:17:31secession documents,
00:17:32each of these arguments,
00:17:33they all tie back
00:17:34to the institution of slavery.
00:17:36It's just,
00:17:37they just do.
00:17:37Our position
00:17:39is thoroughly identified
00:17:40with the institution
00:17:42of slavery,
00:17:43the greatest material
00:17:45interest of the world.
00:17:48Louisiana looks
00:17:49to the formation
00:17:50of a southern confederacy
00:17:52to preserve
00:17:53the blessings
00:17:54of African slavery.
00:17:56Now, to be fair,
00:17:57the secessionists
00:17:58also talked about
00:17:59their rights.
00:18:00They were just
00:18:01incredibly specific.
00:18:03Yield to us
00:18:03our constitutional rights
00:18:05in relation
00:18:06to slave property.
00:18:07Feeds to recognize
00:18:08our rights
00:18:09of property
00:18:09in slaves.
00:18:10Rights of property
00:18:11in said slaves
00:18:12shall not
00:18:13be thereby impaired.
00:18:15Property in slaves.
00:18:16Property in slaves.
00:18:17And nobody was clearer
00:18:18than Alexander Stevens,
00:18:20the vice president
00:18:21of the confederacy.
00:18:23What Stevens wanted most,
00:18:24besides just
00:18:25a little bit of water,
00:18:26was for everyone
00:18:27to understand
00:18:28exactly what
00:18:29the confederacy
00:18:30was built on.
00:18:32Its cornerstone
00:18:33rests upon
00:18:34the great truth
00:18:35that the Negro
00:18:37is not equal
00:18:39to the white man.
00:18:41That slavery
00:18:42is his natural
00:18:44and normal condition.
00:18:49This,
00:18:50our new government,
00:18:52is the first
00:18:53in the history
00:18:54of the world
00:18:55based upon
00:18:56this great
00:18:57physical,
00:18:58philosophical,
00:19:00and moral truth.
00:19:06The founding documents
00:19:08of the confederacy
00:19:09talk so obsessively
00:19:11about slavery.
00:19:12The real mystery
00:19:13is how so many people
00:19:14came to believe
00:19:15that confederate symbols
00:19:17have nothing
00:19:18to do with it.
00:19:23The challenge there
00:19:25is finding someone
00:19:26who genuinely
00:19:27believes this
00:19:28and doesn't
00:19:29make me fear
00:19:30for my safety.
00:19:31You, Thomas Taylor,
00:19:32by an unnamed
00:19:34white supremacist blog,
00:19:35have been called,
00:19:36a scallywag?
00:19:38Yeah,
00:19:39that was a good one.
00:19:40And then,
00:19:40quote,
00:19:41a cuck federate?
00:19:43Yeah,
00:19:44but see,
00:19:45what have they done?
00:19:47Except cowardly,
00:19:49hiding behind
00:19:50their sheets
00:19:51and their computers.
00:19:52Are they in the lawsuit
00:19:54to save the monuments
00:19:55of New Orleans?
00:19:55No.
00:19:56No.
00:19:57Every time I talk
00:19:58to somebody
00:19:59who is very
00:19:59into confederate history,
00:20:01most of their arguments
00:20:02will be,
00:20:03but Lincoln
00:20:04was into slavery,
00:20:05but Grant
00:20:06had some slaves.
00:20:07Everyone is so
00:20:08into slavery.
00:20:09But that doesn't change
00:20:10how much
00:20:11of the South's
00:20:12stated goal
00:20:14was to
00:20:15preserve slavery.
00:20:17Well,
00:20:17they needed it.
00:20:18There's no doubt.
00:20:19They needed it.
00:20:20So why,
00:20:20why don't you think
00:20:22more Southern
00:20:23sympathizers
00:20:24are just more honest
00:20:25about the role
00:20:26of slavery
00:20:27in the confederate cause?
00:20:29Because they'll
00:20:30get jumped on.
00:20:31You know,
00:20:32that's what people
00:20:33are looking for,
00:20:33the gotcha.
00:20:34Yeah.
00:20:35A lot of people
00:20:36won't talk to y'all
00:20:36at all.
00:20:37All right,
00:20:37well,
00:20:37here's my question.
00:20:38Okay.
00:20:39Do you think
00:20:40that the current
00:20:41confederate statues
00:20:42honestly represent
00:20:43the history
00:20:45that those men
00:20:45were involved with?
00:20:47Yeah.
00:20:48I don't see any reason
00:20:50for them not to be honest.
00:20:51It's just a guy
00:20:51standing on a pedestal.
00:20:53You can look
00:20:54at any national cemetery
00:20:55and there's all
00:20:56these little white
00:20:57headstones
00:20:58and these prudelos
00:20:59and they're all Yankees.
00:21:02The Southern bent,
00:21:04instead of being
00:21:04those fancy cemeteries,
00:21:06they were pushed
00:21:07in a ditch
00:21:08and covered up.
00:21:09These women's men
00:21:10didn't come home.
00:21:11all these statues
00:21:13are the headstones
00:21:15of their men.
00:21:16I'll admit,
00:21:17I've spent
00:21:18exactly zero minutes
00:21:20thinking about
00:21:21the grief
00:21:21of the Confederacy,
00:21:23of slavers,
00:21:24but I've also
00:21:26never considered
00:21:27how else
00:21:28you would memorialize
00:21:29that many
00:21:30missing soldiers.
00:21:33At that point,
00:21:34America as a whole
00:21:35has never experienced
00:21:36this level of death,
00:21:38loss,
00:21:38destruction,
00:21:39ever.
00:21:39But it would be
00:21:40akin today
00:21:41of us losing
00:21:42roughly 8 million
00:21:43soldiers
00:21:44in a four-year span.
00:21:46So, yeah,
00:21:48people are traumatized,
00:21:50North and South.
00:21:52Now,
00:21:53for the white South,
00:21:54what remains
00:21:56are women
00:21:57who've lost husbands,
00:21:59they've lost fathers,
00:22:00they've lost brothers,
00:22:01they've lost sons.
00:22:03There's this need
00:22:04to make what happened,
00:22:06make all of this
00:22:07death and destruction
00:22:09mean something.
00:22:12To find meaning
00:22:14in a losing army
00:22:16that went all in
00:22:17on slavery,
00:22:18you'd have to write,
00:22:20like,
00:22:20a whole new story.
00:22:23And that is exactly
00:22:25what white Southerners did.
00:22:27The story they invented
00:22:28after the war
00:22:29is called
00:22:30The Lost Cause.
00:22:32The Lost Cause
00:22:33is an entire mythology
00:22:35around the former
00:22:36Confederacy.
00:22:37It's a false narrative
00:22:38about the Confederacy,
00:22:40about the Old South,
00:22:41about Reconstruction,
00:22:43about the Ku Klux Klan.
00:22:45They know that
00:22:46Northerners are writing
00:22:47histories of the Civil War,
00:22:48and they're very concerned
00:22:50that if they don't get
00:22:51a handle on it
00:22:52and produce their own history,
00:22:54then the history
00:22:55will make their ancestors
00:22:56look bad.
00:22:56Some of the primary truths
00:22:58are that the war
00:23:01wasn't fought over slavery,
00:23:02that we went to war
00:23:04to defend
00:23:05the Tenth Amendment
00:23:06to the Constitution,
00:23:07which is about
00:23:09preserving states' rights.
00:23:10To own human...
00:23:11To own human beings,
00:23:13and that masters of slaves
00:23:14were benevolent.
00:23:16It's a way to
00:23:17change the narrative
00:23:19of defeat
00:23:20to one of celebration
00:23:22and honor.
00:23:23Most of the miseries
00:23:24of the world
00:23:25were caused by wars.
00:23:27And when the wars were over,
00:23:29no one ever knew
00:23:30what they were about.
00:23:32The Lost Cause is really
00:23:34quite a lovely story,
00:23:35isn't it?
00:23:35That we were this
00:23:36genteel, extraordinary society
00:23:38and that we,
00:23:40as the superior race,
00:23:41were able to take care
00:23:42of everything and everybody.
00:23:43And anybody that says
00:23:46that this is not
00:23:47who we truly are
00:23:49really doesn't understand
00:23:51the elegance of the self.
00:23:58It's a beautiful story.
00:23:59It's just not true.
00:24:01It simply isn't true.
00:24:03It is a society
00:24:05that was built
00:24:06on violence,
00:24:07daily violence.
00:24:09It's a society
00:24:10that is built
00:24:10on the idea
00:24:11that a man's labor
00:24:14isn't his own.
00:24:15It is mine
00:24:16to exploit
00:24:17and manipulate
00:24:18as I see fit
00:24:19for my wealth
00:24:19and for my comfort
00:24:21and for my progeny.
00:24:23That is what we are
00:24:24really talking about here.
00:24:37Look at the story
00:24:39they're telling today
00:24:39that the Confederacy
00:24:42was a bunch of evil men
00:24:44fighting to keep people
00:24:46in bondage
00:24:47and it's all horse hockey.
00:24:50Anybody's going to abuse
00:24:51any institution.
00:24:52Yeah.
00:24:53Somebody is going to abuse it
00:24:55just like...
00:24:55I know guys
00:24:57that have gotten
00:24:58a brand new
00:25:00you know
00:25:01$40,000
00:25:02four-wheel drive truck
00:25:04and the first thing
00:25:06he does
00:25:06is he gets
00:25:07some big tires on it
00:25:08and he bails off
00:25:09into the swamp
00:25:10with that thing.
00:25:10People don't always
00:25:11take care of their objects well.
00:25:13Right.
00:25:13Including when
00:25:14that object is a person.
00:25:15Including when it's a person.
00:25:19You...
00:25:21From what I've
00:25:22read,
00:25:23researched,
00:25:26even though
00:25:28they belong to somebody.
00:25:30Yeah.
00:25:31The majority of them
00:25:33were not abused.
00:25:35Because...
00:25:36Say that again?
00:25:37The majority of the slaves
00:25:38were not abused
00:25:39even though
00:25:40they didn't have the freedom
00:25:43to go to San Francisco
00:25:45if they wanted to
00:25:45or whatever.
00:25:47But a lot of them
00:25:48stayed.
00:25:48They were taken care of
00:25:49basically.
00:25:50They got food.
00:25:52They got clothing.
00:25:53They got shelter.
00:25:55The biggest thing.
00:25:56Biggest thing.
00:25:57They got medical.
00:25:58Medical care.
00:25:59This script
00:26:00has survived
00:26:01word for word
00:26:02for 160 years
00:26:03because it just
00:26:04feels good.
00:26:06Not to me.
00:26:07It feels bad
00:26:08to me.
00:26:09And probably
00:26:10to the 4 million
00:26:11humans owned
00:26:12by the Confederacy.
00:26:13But we
00:26:14are not
00:26:15who this script
00:26:16was made for.
00:26:19Talking about
00:26:20white Southern women here
00:26:21because they are
00:26:22the ones now
00:26:23who are
00:26:23really faced
00:26:24with rebuilding.
00:26:25And in doing so
00:26:26they were building
00:26:28monuments
00:26:28in the cemeteries.
00:26:31Cemeteries
00:26:32seemed the most
00:26:33appropriate place
00:26:34because this was about
00:26:35honoring the dead.
00:26:39To understand
00:26:40why these monuments
00:26:41to the dead
00:26:41would ever move
00:26:42outside of the graveyard
00:26:44we have to talk
00:26:45about Reconstruction.
00:26:46A chapter of history
00:26:48that many of our teachers
00:26:49just skipped over
00:26:50so we could all
00:26:50spend more time
00:26:52learning about
00:26:52John D. Rockefeller.
00:26:57The United States
00:26:58sought to
00:27:00rebuild the South
00:27:01both its infrastructure
00:27:03but also
00:27:04its social order.
00:27:05Okay so
00:27:06the federal government
00:27:07was trying to give
00:27:08legal equality
00:27:09to black people
00:27:09which was
00:27:10kind of a tough sell
00:27:11for those
00:27:12whose whole society
00:27:13was based on
00:27:14owning black people.
00:27:16Southern racists
00:27:17are having to behave
00:27:19because they're
00:27:20under watch.
00:27:22The military is there.
00:27:23Black folks
00:27:24on the other hand
00:27:25are going to school
00:27:26sending their kids
00:27:28to school
00:27:28they're working
00:27:29on land
00:27:30they are
00:27:31pursuing
00:27:32every dream
00:27:34they can imagine.
00:27:35Including voting
00:27:36and serving
00:27:37as members of Congress.
00:27:39This is not the way
00:27:40it was depicted
00:27:41in Birth of a Nation.
00:27:42Fumbling out of the fields
00:27:43and into
00:27:44the statehouse.
00:27:46Reconstruction was
00:27:47painted as this
00:27:48horrid thing
00:27:49when in fact
00:27:50it's one of the most
00:27:51progressive periods
00:27:53in American history.
00:27:55Reconstruction created
00:27:56our first
00:27:57anti-discrimination laws,
00:27:59founded our public
00:28:00school system,
00:28:00and integrated
00:28:02some of those
00:28:02schools 80 years
00:28:04before we ever
00:28:05saw Ruby Bridges
00:28:06and those shocking
00:28:07photos of your
00:28:07neighbor's mom.
00:28:09It was a chapter
00:28:10of exceptional
00:28:11racial progress.
00:28:12And in America
00:28:14we know how
00:28:15those usually end.
00:28:17Reconstruction
00:28:18fails
00:28:19because
00:28:20certain
00:28:21white
00:28:22interests
00:28:23do not like
00:28:24the idea
00:28:26of a truly
00:28:27democratic
00:28:28America.
00:28:31some
00:28:32northern
00:28:32politicians
00:28:33feared that
00:28:34holding
00:28:34insurrectionists
00:28:35accountable
00:28:35would be too
00:28:38divisive.
00:28:39So
00:28:40they withdrew
00:28:41federal troops
00:28:41and handed
00:28:42local power
00:28:43back to
00:28:44the same
00:28:45ex-Confederates
00:28:46who had spent
00:28:46the last decade
00:28:47moonlighting
00:28:48as vigilantes.
00:28:50People who
00:28:51were accustomed
00:28:52to having power
00:28:53regained it
00:28:53and they aligned
00:28:55with other people
00:28:55of power
00:28:56to control
00:28:57the fate
00:28:57of a nation.
00:29:00It is this
00:29:01moment
00:29:02of backlash
00:29:03and racial
00:29:04terror.
00:29:05This is the
00:29:06moment
00:29:07public
00:29:07confederate
00:29:07monuments
00:29:08are born.
00:29:11They want
00:29:12these to be
00:29:13publicly
00:29:13visible
00:29:14and having
00:29:15it adjacent
00:29:16to a courthouse
00:29:17or a state
00:29:18house
00:29:18lets you know
00:29:20who's in
00:29:20charge here.
00:29:22It's a
00:29:22statement of
00:29:23white supremacy.
00:29:24That context
00:29:26is important
00:29:27when you talk
00:29:27about these
00:29:28monuments
00:29:28you also
00:29:29need to talk
00:29:30about how
00:29:31many black
00:29:31bodies were
00:29:32lynched
00:29:32during that
00:29:33year alone.
00:29:51It would be so
00:29:52simple if confederate
00:29:54monuments were
00:29:54only about
00:29:55mourning the
00:29:55dead.
00:29:57And if the
00:29:58enthusiasm to
00:29:58build and protect
00:29:59them didn't rise
00:30:01whenever black
00:30:02people were also
00:30:03demanding freedom.
00:30:09Protests grow in
00:30:10Louisiana after an
00:30:11African-American man
00:30:12was shot dead by
00:30:14police outside a
00:30:15Baton Rouge
00:30:15convenience store.
00:30:16Officers in riot gear
00:30:17arrested dozens of
00:30:19protesters demanding
00:30:20justice for Alton
00:30:21Sterling and Philando
00:30:22Castile and other
00:30:23black people killed by
00:30:24police.
00:30:34last December they
00:30:36passed an ordinance to
00:30:38take down four
00:30:39confederate monuments and
00:30:41we have given them ample
00:30:42time to act.
00:30:44Black lives matter!
00:30:46Black lives matter!
00:30:48Since they don't want to
00:30:49move fast enough we need
00:30:50to bring attention to all
00:30:52symbols to white
00:30:53supremacy you need to
00:30:54know that it is
00:30:55representative of the
00:30:57same kind of state
00:30:58sanctioned violence that
00:30:59allows for all of these
00:31:01brothers and sisters who
00:31:02have been gunned down with
00:31:04no consequence from
00:31:05police.
00:31:06Because the reality is
00:31:07when we talk about
00:31:08symbols they are
00:31:09representative of
00:31:11oppressive system.
00:31:13We demand that the
00:31:14city of New Orleans do
00:31:16what it said it was
00:31:17going to do.
00:31:18We demand that they
00:31:19remove the monument
00:31:21to Robert E. Lee,
00:31:22Beauregard, Jeff
00:31:24Davis and the
00:31:24so-called Liberty
00:31:25Monument along with
00:31:27all the other
00:31:28monuments to white
00:31:29supremacy including
00:31:30Andrew Jackson.
00:31:31Do what you said
00:31:33you're going to do!
00:31:35Do what you said
00:31:37you're going to do!
00:31:38USA!
00:31:40USA!
00:31:41USA!
00:31:43USA!
00:31:44USA!
00:31:46Thank you very much
00:31:48everybody.
00:31:49With Trump as
00:31:50president, with all the
00:31:52white supremacist
00:31:53bullshit that's coming
00:31:54out of the White House,
00:31:57now is the best time for
00:31:58us to strike because
00:32:00people have an elevated
00:32:01sense of what racism
00:32:04does in this country.
00:32:06I feel like we
00:32:08underestimated how much
00:32:11sort of white vitriol and
00:32:12myth is out there.
00:32:13What is our responsibility
00:32:15to investigate the point
00:32:17of view that sees these
00:32:18statues as legitimate?
00:32:22Well, I don't think we
00:32:24have a responsibility to
00:32:25legitimize what's
00:32:28illegitimate.
00:32:29I think we have the
00:32:30responsibility of explaining
00:32:32to people why it's illegitimate.
00:32:45Kent Moore Confederate
00:32:46Museum and Cemetery.
00:32:48This, for me, is the closest we
00:32:50can get to the actual
00:32:51Confederacy.
00:32:53D'Arcy's been very against
00:32:56the idea of us going to a
00:32:58Civil War reenactment.
00:33:03Because it feels too what?
00:33:07I don't know.
00:33:08It just seems weird to have you
00:33:09go be out in the woods
00:33:11spending the night with a
00:33:13bunch of white people
00:33:15who have said to your face
00:33:17that they didn't think slavery
00:33:18was a bad idea.
00:33:22I don't think they said
00:33:23slavery.
00:33:24I think they said slavery is
00:33:26not that bad.
00:33:26Look at that!
00:33:27I think out of this weekend,
00:33:29I'm looking for
00:33:34a sense of why.
00:33:40I don't know what I'm looking for.
00:33:42Why are you looking for?
00:34:12You like that one better?
00:34:13than this one?
00:34:15These aren't period.
00:34:16No.
00:34:17You're making yourself
00:34:17uncomfortable.
00:34:18Put that on.
00:34:19How do I win?
00:34:20Are we going to win this?
00:34:22Don't know.
00:34:22We're bad guys.
00:34:24We're the bad guys?
00:34:26We're bad guys.
00:34:27We're Yankees.
00:34:29It's a matter of opinion.
00:34:31We are the bad guys.
00:34:32So in the name of accuracy,
00:34:34you guys will wear blue.
00:34:36Sure.
00:34:36Or wear whatever color
00:34:37the battle needs.
00:34:40As a former theater boy,
00:34:42I love costumes
00:34:43and bonding with a cast
00:34:45of dedicated performers,
00:34:47which makes a Civil War
00:34:48reenactment unexpectedly fun.
00:34:50Until, of course,
00:34:51you start talking about
00:34:52anything besides the costumes.
00:34:54My bloodline,
00:34:55I could be the grand
00:34:57imperial cyclops,
00:34:59whatever the hell
00:35:00you wanted to say
00:35:00of the KKK.
00:35:02Are you?
00:35:03You have to tell me
00:35:04if you are.
00:35:05Oh, no.
00:35:05The whole thing
00:35:06about the Civil War
00:35:07is, in a nutshell,
00:35:09is this.
00:35:13the war actually started,
00:35:16it wasn't because of slavery.
00:35:18When this bitch,
00:35:19by the name of Harriet Beecher Stowe,
00:35:21wrote the book called
00:35:23Uncle Tom's Cabin,
00:35:25that was just one-tenth of one percent
00:35:28of what happened in the South.
00:35:31The blacks are still on the plantation
00:35:33because their lives are governed
00:35:35by the Democratic Party.
00:35:41What percentage of people
00:35:43at the camp do you think
00:35:45believe that slavery
00:35:47was at least the cause of secession?
00:35:49Probably.
00:35:50Twenty-five.
00:35:51Because just like you,
00:35:53people are getting their opinion
00:35:54from what they hear and see.
00:35:57They're not...
00:35:57Oh, no.
00:35:57I was getting my opinion
00:35:58from just looking at
00:35:59the Declaration of Causes
00:36:00and everything the Confederacy wrote
00:36:02about why they're seceding,
00:36:03not why the war happened,
00:36:05but they're saying
00:36:05we firmly identify
00:36:06with the cause of slavery.
00:36:08Slavery is $3 billion
00:36:09of our economy
00:36:10and you can't screw our economy
00:36:12and our property
00:36:13and that's why we're leaving.
00:36:15No.
00:36:16So that's not what they said.
00:36:18No.
00:36:21Throughout history,
00:36:22why have white supremacists
00:36:24always been attracted
00:36:25to the Confederacy?
00:36:27Rebel.
00:36:28Rebel.
00:36:29It's that word right there,
00:36:30rebel.
00:36:31Everybody wants to be a rebel.
00:36:33That's it.
00:36:34So you think white supremacists
00:36:35from KKK forward
00:36:37have been attracted
00:36:38to the Confederacy
00:36:39not because of slavery.
00:36:41It's because of the word rebel.
00:36:42Yeah.
00:36:42That's it.
00:36:43That's all it is.
00:36:44I've been seeing it wrong.
00:36:46But it's...
00:36:46It's a black and white issue.
00:36:47That makes sense.
00:36:49That's all it is.
00:36:50I don't care how you go,
00:36:51it's a black and white issue.
00:36:53What?
00:36:53The KKK?
00:36:54If you need to be a member,
00:36:55I'm not looking at that.
00:36:58Forward.
00:36:59Forward.
00:37:00Forward.
00:37:00Forward.
00:37:05Clover.
00:37:06Father,哦
00:37:07,哎
00:37:08,哎
00:37:09,哎
00:37:09,哎
00:37:10,哎,
00:37:11tsk
00:37:11,哎,哎
00:38:01What do you think now?
00:38:02What did you expect?
00:38:05I got to be honest.
00:38:06I am nervous every time I enter land where there's a lot of confederate flags.
00:38:12I'm always nervous because when you're a person of color and you see a confederate flag,
00:38:18you don't know why the person flies it.
00:38:22And sometimes you encounter people who call you a nigger at a gas station.
00:38:26And that's why they fly it.
00:38:27And other times you encounter someone who gives you a coffee and a honey bun and outfits you
00:38:33and puts you up for the weekend.
00:38:34So as a person of color, we don't have space to assume the best.
00:38:40You joined in to see things from our perspective, more or less.
00:38:45Yeah.
00:38:47What could we possibly join in with you to see from your perspective?
00:38:51The Jazz Fest or something like that?
00:38:53What could we do?
00:38:54We could all go to a slavery museum.
00:38:59No, there's too much.
00:39:01I would never step foot on that.
00:39:02Are you talking about that plantation?
00:39:04Yeah.
00:39:05That's so much fake crap on that thing.
00:39:07Or anything.
00:39:07That's such bullshit at that place.
00:39:23That plantation Thomas refuses to visit is called the Whitney.
00:39:28It's an actual plantation that has been turned into a museum,
00:39:31focusing on what most plantation tours leave out.
00:39:34The people enslaved there.
00:39:39There are very few plantations that exclusively focus on slavery.
00:39:43There are occasionally people who come and they want to see the house.
00:39:47And we're just very candid.
00:39:49This is not a house tour.
00:39:52If I can get everyone to slide down, you've got to walk in.
00:40:06So, what is this?
00:40:08This is a memorial dedicated to the 1811 German Coast Uprising.
00:40:17So, on January 8, 1811, the people enslaved along this river decided to rise up
00:40:25and march down to New Orleans in order to capture the city,
00:40:30free all the people enslaved there, and maybe find a way to a free country.
00:40:35Most of them were arrested, shot to death, and then decapitated.
00:40:39And the heads were posted on poles, you know?
00:40:44It's scary.
00:40:47It's a scary monument.
00:40:48It is scary?
00:40:50You don't think so?
00:40:52Maybe I'm too much used to it.
00:40:54It's not subtle.
00:40:58It's not subtle.
00:41:00It's not subtle.
00:41:01Are they supposed to be terrifying or are they supposed to be inspiring?
00:41:07They are supposed to be inspiring.
00:41:10I don't think we have anything terrifying here.
00:41:14This was the largest ever slave revolt in the U.S.
00:41:18So, this is maybe my favorite monument.
00:41:20It's shocking in a way that makes me very uncomfortable.
00:41:23Mm-hmm.
00:41:24But I also like it.
00:41:26This is my favorite place, too.
00:41:31Some say it is too graphic.
00:41:33Some say we are not doing enough.
00:41:36You know, you cannot talk about slavery
00:41:41and expect that everybody will be comfortable about it.
00:41:45But the goal is not to have people be angry or feeling guilty.
00:41:50The goal is to generate that spark
00:41:54in the person in order to generate consciousness.
00:41:59I think a lot of people, once they hear real stories
00:42:02and read real things,
00:42:03when they're exposed to the real sources,
00:42:06they do feel empathy.
00:42:08They do maybe change their minds.
00:42:10That you can refute a quote or an account
00:42:14with some other account,
00:42:16but it is hard to refute the human experience
00:42:19of being here.
00:42:20Yeah.
00:42:20If we have intentionally misrepresented
00:42:23this history to our own citizens,
00:42:25on purpose,
00:42:26in schools,
00:42:28in our homes,
00:42:29then, to me,
00:42:31it's not entirely your fault if you don't know.
00:42:33Real Underground Railroad
00:42:34and get away to freedom.
00:42:41Whose fault is it?
00:42:43Who is responsible for the fact
00:42:45that so many people
00:42:46can name more of Columbus's ships
00:42:48than they can name abolitionists?
00:42:55In 1894,
00:42:57you see the emergence of the group
00:42:59that called themselves
00:43:00the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
00:43:03Their main purpose
00:43:04is to vindicate the Confederate generation.
00:43:07The UDC put up hundreds of bronze
00:43:10and stone monuments.
00:43:11But they also worked
00:43:12with a much more malleable material,
00:43:15the minds of children.
00:43:22Monuments were considered
00:43:24a gift to future generations.
00:43:26And so they always chose a child
00:43:29to pull the rope
00:43:30that reveals the monument.
00:43:32And they would choose
00:43:3313 young girls from the community.
00:43:35They would wear sashes
00:43:37sort of like a debutante,
00:43:38except across the sash
00:43:39would be the names
00:43:41of 13 Confederate states.
00:43:43And then these children
00:43:44would form what is known
00:43:45as a living battle flag.
00:43:52The UDC also advised
00:43:54school districts
00:43:55on what should go into textbooks.
00:43:58Reject a book
00:43:59that says the South
00:44:00fought to hold her slaves.
00:44:02Reject a book
00:44:03that speaks of the slaveholder
00:44:04of the South
00:44:05as cruel
00:44:06and unjust
00:44:07to his slaves.
00:44:09Some of these books
00:44:10were basically KKK fanfiction.
00:44:12The UDC even created
00:44:13an after-school club
00:44:14where children had to memorize
00:44:16the Confederate speaking points.
00:44:18How were the slaves treated?
00:44:20With great kindness and care
00:44:22in nearly all cases,
00:44:23a cruel master being ran.
00:44:31This narrative
00:44:32was being taught
00:44:33as late as the 1970s.
00:44:35Until the 70s,
00:44:391970s,
00:44:40it wasn't about slavery.
00:44:42It was about state crimes.
00:44:51The city of New Orleans
00:44:53has been cleared
00:44:54to remove three Confederate-era monuments.
00:44:56A federal appeals court
00:44:58cleared the way yesterday
00:44:59for the city to remove them.
00:45:01We finally get the authority
00:45:02from the court
00:45:02to take the monuments down.
00:45:04There are no other
00:45:07legal consequence
00:45:07to us doing it.
00:45:08We're ready to go.
00:45:09But I couldn't get anybody
00:45:11to give me a crane.
00:45:12We could not find
00:45:14cranes and contractors
00:45:15to do the work
00:45:16who had not been threatened
00:45:17or were in fear
00:45:19of some sort of retaliation
00:45:21from the people
00:45:22who wanted to keep
00:45:23those monuments up.
00:45:24In a city that's spending
00:45:25billions of dollars
00:45:26rebuilding
00:45:27and nobody will give me
00:45:28a damn crane.
00:45:29Are you kidding me?
00:45:30I mean,
00:45:30are you really kidding me?
00:45:32Fun fact,
00:45:33white supremacists
00:45:34are rarely kidding.
00:45:36In 1932,
00:45:38the White League monument
00:45:39got a new inscription
00:45:40to make sure
00:45:41everyone was clear
00:45:42about what they had fought for.
00:45:45White supremacy.
00:45:50That monument was so
00:45:52obviously racist
00:45:53that in the 1990s
00:45:54the city quietly
00:45:55tried to remove it
00:45:56and they were sued
00:45:57by a group
00:45:58including David Duke
00:45:59who is, of course,
00:46:01a notoriously disgruntled wizard.
00:46:04So the city hid the monument
00:46:07in this spot
00:46:08between the aquarium
00:46:09and the back of the mall
00:46:10where David Duke
00:46:12still spoke
00:46:12at the rededication ceremony
00:46:14while the police
00:46:15choked out 82-year-old
00:46:16state representative
00:46:17Avery Alexander
00:46:18just for protesting.
00:46:22Even though this monument
00:46:23literally had the words
00:46:25white supremacy
00:46:26inscribed on it,
00:46:28crowds still laid wreaths
00:46:30at this monument
00:46:31for decades.
00:46:31It became a regular stop
00:46:33on one of Mardi Gras'
00:46:34biggest parades.
00:46:36And that's because
00:46:37the people honoring
00:46:38that monument,
00:46:39just like those
00:46:40who left the inscription,
00:46:41were not yet ashamed
00:46:43to recognize
00:46:44that preserving
00:46:45Southern liberty
00:46:46and preserving
00:46:46white supremacy
00:46:47have historically
00:46:49been the same thing.
00:46:52In a city built
00:46:53on nostalgia,
00:46:55how do you get people
00:46:56to let go
00:46:56of the structures
00:46:57they grew up with?
00:46:59If you're Mitch Landrieu,
00:47:00you just wait
00:47:01until they're asleep.
00:47:05middle of the night,
00:47:06everybody's face
00:47:07is covered,
00:47:08this is America,
00:47:09this is the country
00:47:10you want to live in,
00:47:12whether you agree
00:47:13with it or not.
00:47:15This is Chinese.
00:47:16This is what they did
00:47:17pre-World War II.
00:47:20It might be this monument
00:47:21today,
00:47:22but what's tomorrow?
00:47:31With one monument down,
00:47:33people from around
00:47:34the country rushed
00:47:36to New Orleans
00:47:37to protect these men
00:47:38who are made of bronze
00:47:40and are not alive.
00:47:41We're live out here
00:47:42at the Jeff Davis monument.
00:47:43It is extremely chaotic
00:47:45out here.
00:47:46You can see
00:47:46protesters out here
00:47:48armed.
00:47:48NOPD is out here.
00:47:50There's about 50,
00:47:5250 officers out here,
00:47:53more than 100,
00:47:55150 protesters,
00:47:57people for and against
00:47:58the removal
00:47:58of these monuments.
00:48:00So this is extremely
00:48:01chaotic right now.
00:48:05I wish the hell
00:48:06the South would succeed
00:48:07and we would be
00:48:08a country all of our own
00:48:09because we have
00:48:10different moral values
00:48:11in the South
00:48:12than they do
00:48:13in the Northern states.
00:48:14From the Mason-Dixon line
00:48:15down South,
00:48:16it's a whole different world.
00:48:18Why have you come out
00:48:19to support the monuments?
00:48:20Why is that
00:48:21an important cause to you?
00:48:22Support the monuments
00:48:23because it is history.
00:48:24People keep saying that.
00:48:26But I'm afraid
00:48:26that the history
00:48:27of people that look like me,
00:48:29my ancestors,
00:48:30are going to be further lost.
00:48:32One of the most...
00:48:33You're talking about women?
00:48:34Black people.
00:48:35Oh, right.
00:48:36I mean, African American,
00:48:37whatever you want to call them
00:48:38nowadays.
00:48:39My great-great-granddaddy was
00:48:40and he loved Confederacy.
00:48:42He loved the South.
00:48:43He may have been black
00:48:44in the slave,
00:48:44but he contributed too.
00:48:46How do you know
00:48:46they weren't paid?
00:48:47How do you know
00:48:48they wouldn't reward it?
00:48:49When it got to the point
00:48:50when I saw the crowd
00:48:51was getting bigger and bigger,
00:48:55the men decided
00:48:56that's all I need
00:48:57to never be able to go home.
00:48:59At least we fought
00:49:00for what we believe in.
00:49:01So the folks
00:49:02with the firearms that night
00:49:03were prepared to die
00:49:04for the monument?
00:49:05Mm-hmm.
00:49:06But I told my guys
00:49:07they had to make a decision.
00:49:08Whatever they decide,
00:49:10I'm with them.
00:49:11I said,
00:49:11we all die in place.
00:49:17In 1911,
00:49:18the dedication of this monument
00:49:20had all of the things
00:49:21that had become
00:49:22totally normal
00:49:23at Confederate commemorations.
00:49:25A human flag
00:49:26made of singing children,
00:49:28a whites-only ceremony,
00:49:29and a big parade.
00:49:32Now, just to be clear,
00:49:34these are men
00:49:35in Confederate uniform,
00:49:3746 years after the war,
00:49:39marching through
00:49:40racially-mixed neighborhoods.
00:49:43Because these commemorations
00:49:45were also a show of force.
00:49:55A reminder,
00:49:57the Confederacy still lives.
00:50:00And today,
00:50:01this monument is a stage
00:50:03for another show of force
00:50:04where visiting performers
00:50:06get to become brave soldiers
00:50:07instead of whatever
00:50:09they were back home.
00:50:10I don't know.
00:50:11I had hope that I present
00:50:12to slow it down the air.
00:50:13Good job, you losers!
00:50:16Takeaways from today.
00:50:18There are very few police here.
00:50:22And they are chilling really hard.
00:50:25There are militia men showing up.
00:50:27You can hear almost
00:50:29an eagerness in folks' voices
00:50:31when that woman was saying,
00:50:33oh, Sunday.
00:50:34She was, like,
00:50:34implying that it was
00:50:35going to be a bloodbath.
00:50:36Right?
00:50:37Did you hear that?
00:50:38So your advice is
00:50:40we shouldn't stick around
00:50:41for nightfall?
00:50:42I wouldn't.
00:50:43And definitely
00:50:44not Sunday.
00:50:46Why?
00:50:47What's happening Sunday?
00:50:48You know what's happening Sunday.
00:50:51You never heard it?
00:50:52No, what's happening Sunday?
00:50:53It ain't good.
00:50:55There's a...
00:50:56Give me the intel.
00:50:58It's pretty bad.
00:51:00Like, what does that mean?
00:51:12The sight of armed
00:51:13white nationalists
00:51:14is always terrifying.
00:51:19Especially with this music.
00:51:21Can we...
00:51:21Can we cut the music, please?
00:51:23All right, to the corner.
00:51:25Yeah, oh.
00:51:27Okay, yeah,
00:51:27that feels more accurate.
00:51:30Shout out to Paul.
00:51:31Shout out to Paul.
00:51:39We have to be on the front lines,
00:51:41you know,
00:51:41fighting for this kind of change.
00:51:44There seems to be
00:51:44a little bit of silliness right now.
00:51:46Like, there's been a music.
00:51:47And T-Fo, you show up.
00:51:49And, uh...
00:51:49And T-Fo, you show up.
00:51:50Woo!
00:51:51Woo!
00:51:52Yeah!
00:51:53And T-Fo, you...
00:51:54You've passed me.
00:51:55You never show up.
00:51:56You never show up.
00:51:57But I was saying this.
00:51:58Lady Baldington's car.
00:52:03These people don't just hate
00:52:04these monuments.
00:52:05That's not just stone and mortar.
00:52:07They hate us.
00:52:08They hate white people.
00:52:09That's just a symbol of us.
00:52:11When that's gone,
00:52:11what do you think
00:52:12they come for next?
00:52:13Us.
00:52:14It happens every single time.
00:52:16Let's go kids!
00:52:29We're going to the new circle!
00:52:32We're going to the new circle!
00:52:33We got him!
00:52:34We got him!
00:52:36We got him!
00:52:37We got him!
00:52:39We got him!
00:52:41We got your wife!
00:52:44We coming down!
00:52:45It's all good, it's all good, we got a work to do, and we're not going to give you thank
00:52:52you.
00:53:42I told you, you're about to see a short walk.
00:53:44Take down Robert Lee, and all symbols are white supremacy.
00:53:49Give up, boy, I will not let this be fair.
00:53:53I will not let this be fair.
00:53:56I want to go in just as bad as you would.
00:53:58Focus on the task at hand, because we got a lot of work to do.
00:54:01The city of New Orleans has still not held accountable the people who have murdered Eric Harris or Alton Starling.
00:54:10It is very important that we make the connection between symbols and systems.
00:54:15They didn't put these symbols up in the nighttime, so they shouldn't come down in the nighttime.
00:54:19They're coming down in the daytime, because this is what democracy looks like.
00:54:30In 1884, this Lee Monument was the largest bronze ever cast in New York.
00:54:36Yes, the first towering monument to the hero of the Confederacy is a transplant from the home of the Yankees.
00:54:45Well, Northerners are complicit in the lost cause, and this is the thing that never gets said.
00:54:51They publish the books about the lost cause.
00:54:53They make the movies about the lost cause.
00:54:56They basically hold their nose or just turn a blind eye to what's happening in the South around issues of
00:55:04race, for example.
00:55:05You know, when we talk about reconciliation between the North and the South, what we're really talking about is reconciliation
00:55:12between white people.
00:55:27As whites-only veterans' reunions recast the war as a tragic misunderstanding with fine people on both sides,
00:55:36Northerners got rich making Dixie as romantic and as American as the Wild West.
00:55:45More people are familiar with popular culture than they are with historical fact.
00:55:54So popular culture has the ability to move sentiment and understanding around history.
00:56:05This is why reconciliation is possible, because the North buys in.
00:56:11With the help of the nation's brightest stars, the lost cause finally became immortal.
00:56:17Ready, go!
00:56:18Not as a fringe piece of propaganda, but as the story that reunited a nation.
00:56:24A lie born in the South, bronzed in the North.
00:56:43I wish I was in the land of cotton.
00:56:49Old times there are not forgotten
00:56:55Look away, look away
00:56:58It's just stone. It's just stone and bronze.
00:57:01The man Jefferson Davis was a Christian gentleman, right?
00:57:04He's with Jesus.
00:57:08There's a lot more coming.
00:57:10Take him down, take him down, take him down
00:57:14Take him down, take him down, take him down
00:57:18Look away, look away
00:57:20Look away, Dixieland
00:57:24Oh, I wish I was in Dixie
00:57:32Hooray, hooray
00:57:35In Dixieland
00:57:36This is a particularly important reading from the Word of God.
00:57:40It's used in exorcisms and it's used to defend us against all evil.
00:57:44Pray, O Lord, that those who are attacking our heritage may repent of their sins
00:57:49And may likewise join us as your people.
00:57:54Make haste, O God, to deliver me
00:57:56Make haste to help me, O Lord
00:57:58As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever
00:58:03Amen
00:58:04Amen
00:58:06Amen
00:58:07Amen
00:58:08Amen
00:58:10Amen
00:58:12Amen
00:58:14Amen
00:58:15Amen
00:58:15Amen
00:58:15Amen
00:58:15Amen
00:58:16Amen
00:58:16Amen
00:58:17Amen
01:01:33It's our duty to fight for our freedom.
01:01:37It's our duty to win.
01:01:39We must love to protect each other.
01:01:43We have nothing to lose but our change.
01:01:46I say it's our duty to fight for our freedom.
01:01:51It's our duty to win.
01:01:53We must love and protect each other.
01:01:56We have nothing to lose but our change.
01:02:00I say it's our duty to fight for our freedom.
01:02:02It's our duty to fight for our freedom.
01:02:19I think Mitch, politically smart, saw the wave coming and he decided to get his surfboard
01:02:25out and take advantage of it.
01:02:27Why don't you get rid of all of them?
01:02:29If you really feel like you say that you feel that these are an insult to any people with
01:02:34progressive thoughts in their mind, then you should in one fell swoop get rid of it.
01:02:40You don't actually mean white.
01:02:42I mean all.
01:02:44Take down all names of Confederate soldiers.
01:02:47And white supremacists as well.
01:02:49And slave owners.
01:02:50And slave owners.
01:02:51And white supremacists.
01:02:53And vocal advocates of slavery.
01:02:55And vocal advocates of slavery.
01:02:56Okay, but you don't mean like segregationists also.
01:02:59Of course.
01:03:00That's so many names.
01:03:01That's a few hundred.
01:03:03But they got a sign shop at City Hall.
01:03:05They can make their own sign.
01:03:12When you witness century-old statues of slave owners finally come off their pedestals,
01:03:18you start to feel like maybe anything is possible.
01:03:22And as we celebrated the end of filming in New Orleans,
01:03:25I still wanted just one final shot of the monument's fight spreading to another city.
01:03:29Luckily, my friend Aziz, a war photographer who you've already met a few times,
01:03:35was on his way to just such a place.
01:03:38So I joined him on a road trip to a rally uniting the defenders of another Lee statue.
01:03:49Wild andixo.
01:03:51Um.
01:03:53Rolling with the Z's.
01:03:56And um.
01:03:58It's terrifying.
01:04:01Wild andixo!
01:04:04Wild andixo!
01:04:08Wild andixo!
01:04:11Wild andixo!
01:04:12Wild andixo!
01:04:32I was thinking about what made last night so scary and part of it is because I've never
01:04:38seen mob violence before yeah um do you think that the potential for violence is higher even though
01:04:46it's but it's daylight well the thing is is that now you have uh antifa which will be showing up
01:04:53today and that's their arch rival they live for antifa blood the thing that scares me is at the
01:05:00monuments the narrative is we are not white supremacists there's nothing white supremacist
01:05:05about this yeah no that's not this that's not this this is gas the jews kill the niggers
01:05:15that's what this is that's who will be there that's who we were with last night
01:05:46they're about to move in and everything up you need to get out of here
01:06:01oh god i know
01:06:23a horrific scene in charlottesville virginia a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly
01:06:31violence and chaos a car plowing into a crowd of demonstrators protesting against those white
01:06:37nationalists a 32 year old woman killed a number of severe injuries many life-threatening
01:06:46i am just really anxious to get out of here um just to know that we're beyond the city limit
01:07:00i was watching the police uh open the road for this little mini tank that they have
01:07:07and all of a sudden i hear this person screaming and it's um like a young white guy dressed in
01:07:16white
01:07:17shirt khakis and hat and boots which is the uniform for the supremacist group vanguard america
01:07:23and this kid is being chased by counter protesters who are going to kick his ass and i see him
01:07:30take off
01:07:31his shirt and he's shivering with fear and he says to them i'm not really white power man i just
01:07:37came
01:07:37here for the fun i'm sorry you can't just take your costume mom
01:07:43so you just came here for the fun yeah yeah so you're not a real white supremacist
01:07:49simply barely it's kind of a fun idea which part uh just being able to say like hey man white
01:07:58power yeah what's the where's the fun part come they killed someone today yeah they killed someone
01:08:09today someone's dead today and someone was probably critically injured last night
01:08:17i think there's comedy in people who are white supremacists and don't admit that they're white
01:08:22supremacists because you can kind of pick apart their narrative but when people are
01:08:27just out there screaming blood and soil you will not replace me uh
01:08:34and then running pedestrians down on purpose to kill them
01:08:38and then um i feel like i have no tools for that
01:08:45so
01:09:08i haven't understood until a month or two ago that i'm an angry person that generally i'm like very
01:09:17upbeat and jokey but in the process of making this film i've been like oh i'm pretty angry all the
01:09:25time yeah and i want to know if you know that you made me like that absolutely because i woke
01:09:33you up i
01:09:34made you wake up and as i said a second ago it is not possible to be a black man
01:09:41in america black
01:09:42person in america and not be angry i don't know who i'd be without it but i also i feel
01:09:51like my mind
01:09:51always goes to the idea of oh but these people who are really bigoted i bet we could just change
01:09:59their
01:09:59minds why why do you think that i don't know because why do you hold that hope out that illusion
01:10:10there are some people like students in my class who can be awoken but it's like an alcoholic right you
01:10:18cannot get treatment for alcoholism until you first admit that you're an alcoholic and america
01:10:28as a country is so blind to the institutional racism that seizes through every fiber of this
01:10:36country they don't understand and they don't want to understand they don't want to be waking up
01:10:42that's my goal in life to wake people up but once you wake up you can never go back to
01:10:47sleep
01:10:50after charlottesville what once took years could suddenly be done overnight
01:10:56but i was still afraid that what we celebrate as the dying breath of the confederacy is often just
01:11:03the sound of it roaring back to life this week it's robert e lee i noticed that stonewall jackson's
01:11:09coming down i wonder is it george washington next week and is it thomas jefferson the week after
01:11:15you know you all you really do have to ask yourself where does it stop if this were a summer
01:11:20blockbuster
01:11:20starring will smith now would be the moment when we discover that you can't kill the monster of the
01:11:26lost cause just by destroying its physical form maybe the only way to do that is for new orleanians
01:11:33to dig up the stories the confederacy worked so hard to bury
01:11:40so this is it huh yes this is the marker for the transatlantic slave trade to louisiana
01:11:47this is where the enslaved people were brought to be sold to planters you know on this side of the
01:11:53river
01:11:54the system that was developed in the south as far as slave trade was not going to tell the story
01:11:59of
01:12:00the africans it was going to glorify the story of those who exploited them freddy and luther are part
01:12:07of a group of new orleanians putting up plaques at the 52 unmarked sites around the city where
01:12:12africans were imprisoned or sold so they understand the difficulty of reminding tourists what the french
01:12:20quarter used to sell people who were descendants of the people who perpetuated the crime they don't
01:12:26want the storage at all they don't want to hear it because it brings anxiety to them but we as
01:12:31victims have also been brainwashed to not want to tell our own story you know our ancestors didn't
01:12:37talk to us a lot about what happened because they felt ashamed of it these stories are coming out so
01:12:43i
01:12:44think we're in a different portal of time that these things are not going to be swept under the rug
01:12:48any
01:12:48longer i've always thought of slavery as this piece missing in white people's memory which is why it's
01:12:56hard to hear that that piece might also be missing from me that those of us descended from the enslaved
01:13:03some of us who have fashioned identities out of remembering the whips and the dogs and the swamps
01:13:08that even we have only ever heard a fraction of our own story
01:13:16it's been more than 200 years since a group of enslaved black men and women launched an uprising
01:13:21in modern day saint john the baptist parish louisiana many were captured and convicted of insurrection
01:13:26but now two centuries later an artist has staged his own version of that fateful event
01:13:47so thank you all for showing up this is a difficult durational performance that's deeply engaged with
01:13:53the ideas of the revolt of 1811 self-determination in that era is something that people have written
01:13:59out the black people had the most radical ideas of freedom at the time
01:14:13in the early days
01:14:30in the early days
01:14:31join us!
01:14:33join us!
01:14:35join us!
01:14:35join us!
01:14:36join us!
01:14:37join us!
01:14:39Freedom!
01:14:41Freedom!
01:14:43Freedom!
01:14:45Freedom!
01:14:48Onto New Orleans!
01:14:52Onto New Orleans!
01:14:55Freedom out of death!
01:14:58To me, it feels like sometimes a lot of being Black is about remembering pain and wearing that pain and
01:15:06recalling that pain.
01:15:07Accept your Blackness, see the history of your Blackness, see what these white people have done to us.
01:15:13It is a freeing thing to be able to look at that history in a positive way, in a way
01:15:19that feels like, no, we are agents of change as well.
01:15:25Marching in an army of Black rebels, I realize how long I've been spending doing the opposite.
01:15:32I feel Blackest when I'm chasing white supremacists.
01:15:37Like I'm somehow earning my spot anytime I put myself in danger or dive back in history to dig up
01:15:44the evidence.
01:15:48But the power I feel in this moment has nothing to do with staring at whiteness.
01:15:54It comes from being able to see myself outside of that chase.
01:16:0310ucoplasty
01:16:035 Ü напис
01:16:035
01:16:035
01:16:49We still see the vestiges of the very things that we're talking about all around us.
01:17:03I'm worried. I don't know what timeline we are on.
01:17:08Are we on the timeline where historians are going to look back and remember, there, that was the turning point.
01:17:15They started taking down monuments.
01:17:17They started questioning Confederate symbols with real persistence.
01:17:21They started straightening the road where it went wrong.
01:17:26Or is this time now just a flash in the pan?
01:17:33I have no idea.
01:17:36If you look at sort of historical pattern, and, you know, there's no fixed pattern to things, but we are
01:17:45undergoing rapid change.
01:17:47We're seeing a desire by communities to see themselves in the historical narrative in accurate ways.
01:17:54All of those things have a positive, but it is also disruptive.
01:17:59Will it be a situation where we all back up and go, okay, now, let's have a real reckoning with
01:18:07what our past is and what we hope for for the future of the United States?
01:18:12Or if it becomes so disruptive that new comforting myths emerge.
01:18:19I don't know what happens on the backside of disruption.
01:18:42Outrage at the death of George Floyd, an African-American man, while in police custody in Minneapolis.
01:18:47In city after American city tonight, thousands of people have once again taken to the streets
01:18:52to express their anger, frustration, and solidarity.
01:18:55It is a precarious moment for this country, still in the grip of a pandemic that has claimed more than
01:19:01100,000 lives.
01:19:03Hands up, don't shoot! Hands up!
01:19:06Looking at video of a Minneapolis police station that was set ablaze late last night.
01:19:12All of this in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of city police officers.
01:19:19Looks like they're attacking the United Daughters of the Confederacy building.
01:19:24Oh, they just lit the building on fire.
01:19:40Protesters toppled a statue of Jefferson Davis, the latest in several statues that have been damaged across the state of
01:19:47Virginia.
01:19:48The city of Houston, Mobile, Alabama.
01:19:50Kentucky removing a statue of Jefferson Davis from the state capitol building.
01:20:00I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten.
01:20:10Look away, look away, look away, Dixieland.
01:20:29When it comes to truth and reconciliation, we cannot have reconciliation without truth.
01:20:41away, away, away, away, away, away, in Dixieland.
01:20:47I'll take my strength to live and die in Dixieland.
01:20:53away!
01:21:05Way down Southern Dixie
01:21:38What's next? Progress. To be successful comes with a process, but sometimes we're too close to notice our own growth.
01:21:46Step back and see the bigger picture.
01:21:48Bigger picture. What's next? Progress. To be successful comes with a process, but sometimes we're too close to notice our
01:21:56own growth. Step back and see the bigger picture. Bigger picture.
01:22:02What's next? Progress. To be successful comes with a process, but sometimes we're too close to notice our own growth.
01:22:09Step back and see the bigger picture.
01:22:22You
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