About the reenactment... maybe I'm anticipating your argument by going out on a limb and say yes, it is OK to dress up like a Nazi for some reenactment situations.
I thought about that in relation to a big reenactment issue here in Georgia: The Moore's Ford Lynching Reenactment. Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GCQi2jhre4. It's been done for several years, organized by African-American activists, to try and raise awareness of a lynching that many people have a vested interest in forgetting. A lot of (white) people HATE this reenactment and throw all sorts of arguments against it, even though they don't seem to muster up the same vitriol against Civil War reenactments...
But anyway, the first year of the lynching reenactment, the organizers couldn't get any white people to play the KKK lynchers. So the KKK roles had to be played by black people, which must have been pretty psychologically disturbing for the reenactors. The next year, the organizers sent out appeals into the social justice/peace activist community and found some white people (I think they're from the Quakers) to play the roles. One of them is shown in the video.
So I had that reenactment issue sort of in mind as I read up on the Nazi "Wiking" dude. And then I read the details, and oh man, they actually ADMIRED those Nazis and that's why they were doing it in the first place. There was no reason, no understanding of context, that some people would have a problem with this... it just seemed all-around disgusting, offensive, entitled, racist and anti-Semitic. The defenses are just pathetic.
So I wouldn't actually blanket condemn anyone for dressing up/reenacting if it seemed like they had a good reason for it. Like the KKK reenactors... that actually took a lot of courage and was done out of the best intentions and for a good goal. But those Wiking fuckers are just undefendable.
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Date: 2010-10-13 03:30 pm (UTC)I thought about that in relation to a big reenactment issue here in Georgia: The Moore's Ford Lynching Reenactment. Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GCQi2jhre4. It's been done for several years, organized by African-American activists, to try and raise awareness of a lynching that many people have a vested interest in forgetting. A lot of (white) people HATE this reenactment and throw all sorts of arguments against it, even though they don't seem to muster up the same vitriol against Civil War reenactments...
But anyway, the first year of the lynching reenactment, the organizers couldn't get any white people to play the KKK lynchers. So the KKK roles had to be played by black people, which must have been pretty psychologically disturbing for the reenactors. The next year, the organizers sent out appeals into the social justice/peace activist community and found some white people (I think they're from the Quakers) to play the roles. One of them is shown in the video.
So I had that reenactment issue sort of in mind as I read up on the Nazi "Wiking" dude. And then I read the details, and oh man, they actually ADMIRED those Nazis and that's why they were doing it in the first place. There was no reason, no understanding of context, that some people would have a problem with this... it just seemed all-around disgusting, offensive, entitled, racist and anti-Semitic. The defenses are just pathetic.
So I wouldn't actually blanket condemn anyone for dressing up/reenacting if it seemed like they had a good reason for it. Like the KKK reenactors... that actually took a lot of courage and was done out of the best intentions and for a good goal. But those Wiking fuckers are just undefendable.