-7 57% 17% 0mph WWN bar30.33 steep rise windchill-7 Winter
Waning Crescent of the Winter Moon
Watched a strange and disturbing, but also funny, movie on the Independent Film Channel, “The Confederate States of America.” Produced by Spike Lee this is a satirical take on American history if the south had won the Civil War. I’ve not read much alternate history and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a movie version of alternate history either. This movie manages to do several things at once. It does show the value of the North having won the Civil War. At the same time it shows that much of our post-civil war history does have its roots in slavery. For example, the urban riots of the sixties have a parallel reality in this movie as slave rebellions. During the rise of Hitler the movie positions the US as the friend of Hitler and the Nazis since both have a race based science at the heart of their politics.
Made for a fictional TV broadcast, this movie also has faux commercials for products like Niggerhair Tobacco, Sambo Motor Oil, and Darkie Toothpaste. At the end the movie documents these as real American products (Niggerhair was made in Milwaukee.) and their origins. The movie worked for me. It reminded me of where we are and how much further we still have to go. Made me think of the conversation the Woolly Mammoths had at Paul Stricklands, vis a vis MLK day.
