White Right: Meeting the Enemy

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"White Right: Meeting the Enemy"
Exposure episode
White Right MEETING THE ENEMY.jpg
Episode no.Series 7
Episode 2
Directed by Deeyah Khan
Featured music
  • Danny Farrant
  • Nick Kingsley
Cinematography by
  • Deeyah Khan
  • Darin Prindle
Editing byMelanie Quigley
Original air date11 December 2017 (2017-12-11)
Running time60 minutes

"White Right: Meeting the Enemy" is a 2017 documentary that aired as an episode of British current affairs TV series Exposure . The documentary was directed by Deeyah Khan and produced by Deeyah's production company Fuuse. [1]

Contents

Deeyah travels to the United States to meet with some of the country's most prominent neo-Nazis and white supremacist leaders to seek to understand the personal and political reasons behind the apparent resurgence of far-right extremism in America. She made the film after being interviewed on TV about multiculturalism for which she received many threats and hate speech on social media.

Carol Midgley, writing for The Times , wrote of the film: "Part investigative journalist, part almost psychotherapist, Khan uses hard and soft skills to discover what drives such hatred and forces people to face her, their so-called enemy". [2]

Synopsis

"White Right: Meeting the Enemy" sees Deeyah sitting down face-to-face with neo-Nazis and white nationalists after receiving death threats and racially-charged hate mail from the Far Right movement as a result of giving a BBC TV interview advocating diversity and multiculturalism. [3] [4] In the film Deeyah tries to get behind the hatred and the violent ideology, to try to understand why people embrace far right extremism.

After covering a Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, she received permission to meet with Jeff Schoep, the leader of the National Socialist Movement (NSM). Afterwards she receives permission to film the group at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, where the group gets into an altercation with and are pepper-sprayed by Antifa counter-protestors. After the death of Heather Heyer and President Donald Trump's controversial remarks on the rally, Schoep takes Deeyah to the urban decay in Detroit and explains that he moved the organization's headquarters to the city to take advantage of its economic decline for recruiting. Deeyah later tells Schoep about her experiences at anti-racist demonstrations during her childhood in Norway, and shows him both the BBC interview and the hate mail, causing Jeff to become visibly discomforted by the racial slurs in the emails.

Deeyah next travels to a training camp run by the NSM's director for public relations, Brian Culpepper, in rural Tennessee. After becoming well-acquainted with him, she asks Culpepper if he would follow through with his desire to deport all non-whites to create a white ethnostate if he would have to do it to her, and he demurs, then reluctantly says yes. She also visits antisemitic and homophobic skinhead Ken Parker at his home in Jacksonville, Florida, where he is studying political science. Although Ken goes through with his plan to make antisemitic flyers and distribute them to Jewish communities and synagogues, he begins to visibly develop positive attitudes towards Muslims, partially due to Deeyah's friendliness. His girlfriend would email her two weeks after the meeting informing her that Ken was expelled from the University of North Florida for a threatening post of himself holding a rifle on a student Facebook account however. Deeyah also notes the rise of the alt-right in the United States, and meets Richard B. Spencer, who displays an openly elitist attitude, and Jared Taylor, who compares multiculturalism to mental illness and HIV/AIDS.

In Milwaukee, Deeyah meets with Arno Michaelis, a former skinhead and lead singer of the white power rock band Centurion, who expresses remorse for his violent actions. She also travels to New York City to meet with a former skinhead, Frank Meeink, who explains he was drawn to neo-Nazism due to his troubled youth with intense physical abuse from an alcoholic father, providing him a source to psychologically project his hatred. She also meets with Pardeep Singh Kaleka, a survivor of the 2012 Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting in Oak Creek, learning how he now works with Michaelis to dissuade youth from extremism. Culpepper also makes a Skype call to Deeyah announcing his intent to resign from the NSM partially because of his meeting with her.

Cast

Accolades

YearAwardCategoryResult
2018 Emmy Award Current Affairs. [5] Won
Royal Television Society Director - Documentary/Factual & Non Drama. [6] Won
PeaceJam Special Jury award [7] Won
Rory Peck Award Sony Impact Award for Current Affairs [8] Won
WFTV Awards The BBC News and Factual Award [9] Won
Asian Media Awards Best Investigation. [10] Won
British Academy Film Awards Current Affairs. [11] Nominated
Frontline Club Awards Broadcasting. [12] Nominated
2019 APA Film Festival Best Short Film AwardWon
Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival Jury Awards [13] Won

Related Research Articles

Neo-Nazism comprises the post-World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy, to attack racial and ethnic minorities, and in some cases to create a fascist state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Far-right politics</span> Political alignment on the extreme end of right-wing politics

Far-right politics, or right-wing extremism, is a spectrum of political thought that tends to be radically conservative, ultra-nationalist, and authoritarian, often also including nativist tendencies. The name derives from the left–right political spectrum, with the "far right" considered further from center than the standard political right.

The National Socialist Movement (NSM) was a British neo-Nazi group active during the late 1990s. The group is not connected to the earlier National Socialist Movement of Colin Jordan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Movement</span> British Neo-Nazi organisation

The British Movement (BM), later called the British National Socialist Movement (BNSM), is a British neo-Nazi organisation founded by Colin Jordan in 1968. It grew out of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), which was founded in 1962. Frequently on the margins of the British far-right, the BM has had a long and chequered history for its association with violence and extremism. It was founded as a political party but manifested itself more as a pressure and activist group. It has had spells of dormancy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Racist Action</span> North American far-left political cells

Anti-Racist Action (ARA), also known as the Anti-Racist Action Network, is a decentralized network of militant far-left political cells in the United States and Canada. The ARA network originated in the late 1980s to engage in direct action and doxxing against rival political organizations on the hard right to dissuade them from further involvement in political activities. Anti-Racist Action described such groups as racist or fascist, or both. Most ARA members have been anarchists, but some have been Trotskyists and Maoists.

The Hammerskins are a neo-Nazi group formed in 1988 in Dallas, Texas. Their primary focus is the production and promotion of white power rock music, and many white power bands have been affiliated with the group. The Hammerskins were affiliated with the record label 9% Productions. The Hammerskins host several annual concerts, including Hammerfest, an annual event in both the United States and Europe in honor of deceased Hammerskin Joe Rowan, the lead singer of the band Nordic Thunder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deeyah Khan</span> Norwegian documentary film director

Deeyah Khan is a Norwegian documentary film director and human rights activist of Punjabi/Pashtun descent. Deeyah is a two-time Emmy Award winner, two time Peabody Award winner, a BAFTA winner and has received the Royal Television Society award for Best Factual Director. She has made seven documentaries to date, all have been shown on ITV in the UK as part of its Exposure series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Françoise Dior</span> French socialite (1932–1993)

Marie Françoise Suzanne Dior was a French socialite and neo-Nazi underground financier. She was the niece of French fashion designer Christian Dior and Resistance fighter Catherine Dior, who publicly distanced herself from her niece after she married British neo-Nazi activist Colin Jordan in 1963. She was a close friend of Savitri Devi.

White power skinheads, also known as racist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads, are members of a neo-Nazi, white supremacist and antisemitic offshoot of the skinhead subculture. Many of them are affiliated with white nationalist organizations and some of them are members of prison gangs. The movement emerged in the United Kingdom between the late 1960s and the late 1970s, before spreading across Eurasia and North America in the 1980–1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Socialist Movement (United States)</span> American Neo-Nazi organization (1974-)

The National Socialist Movement is a Neo-Nazi organization based in the United States. Once considered to be the largest and most prominent Neo-Nazi organization in the United States, since the late 2010s its membership and prominence have plummeted. It was a part of the Nationalist Front and it is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

No Remorse are an English white power rock band formed in London in 1985. They were one of the most prominent neo-Nazi skinheads bands of the Rock Against Communism scene. The band was led by Paul Burnley between 1986 and 1996, and by William Browning and Daniel "Jacko" Jack from 1996 onwards, following a factional dispute within British white nationalist politics.

Clark Reid Martell is an American white supremacist and the former leader of Chicago Area SkinHeads (CASH), which was founded in 1985 by six skinheads under his leadership. This was the first organized neo-Nazi white power skinhead group in the United States. The group was also called Romantic Violence, and was the first US distributor of records and tapes from the English band Skrewdriver.

Neo-Nazism is the post World War II ideology that promotes white supremacy and specifically antisemitism. In Canada, neo-Nazism has existed as a branch of the far-right and has been a source of considerable controversy for over 50 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Picciolini</span> American former extremist (born 1973)

Christian Marco Picciolini is an American former extremist who is the founder of the Free Radicals Project, a global network working to prevent extremism and help people disengage from hate movements. He is the author of a memoir, Romantic Violence: Memoirs of an American Skinhead, which details his time as a leader of the white power movement in the U.S. An updated version of the story was published in 2017, titled White American Youth: My Descent into America's Most Violent Hate Movement--and How I Got Out. His book Breaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism (2020) looks at how extremists recruit the vulnerable to their causes.

<i>Jihad: A Story of the Others</i> United Kingdom / Norway TV series or program

Jihad: A Story of the Others is a 2015 documentary film by Norwegian director Deeyah Khan. The film is produced by Khan's production company Fuuse. Jihad is the outcome of a two-year investigation by Deeyah and provides a view from the inside about what it is like to be drawn into radicalism. The documentary film sets out to provide an insight into why some young Muslims in the West embrace violent extremism and go abroad to fight holy wars and in some cases why they came to reject it.

“It’s not about ideals – 90% of them never subscribe to the ideals – it’s other factors that are a draw. This is the new rock and roll; jihad is sexy. The kid who was not very good-looking now looks good holding a gun. He can get a bride now, he’s powerful. The Isis gun is as much a penis extension as the stockbroker with his Ferrari”.
Alyas Karmani, speaking to the Observer

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Metzger</span> American white supremacist and Neo-Nazi leader

Thomas Linton Metzger was an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi leader and Klansman. He founded White Aryan Resistance (WAR), a neo-Nazi organization, in 1983. He was a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. Metzger voiced strong opposition to immigration to the United States, and was an advocate of the Third Position. He was incarcerated in Los Angeles County, California, and Toronto, Ontario, and was the subject of several lawsuits and government inquiries. He, his son, and WAR were fined a total of $12.5 million as a result of the murder of Mulugeta Seraw, 28, an Ethiopian student, by skinheads in Portland, Oregon, affiliated with WAR.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditionalist Worker Party</span> Defunct neo-Nazi and white nationalist American political party

The Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP) was a neo-Nazi political party active in the United States between 2013 and 2018, affiliated with the broader "alt-right" movement that became active within the U.S. during the 2010s. It was considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center's list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Life After Hate</span> American nonprofit organization

Life After Hate is a nonprofit organization founded in 2010 by Arno Michaelis. Its stated mission is to help "people leave the violent far-right, to connect with humanity, and lead compassionate lives.” In January 2017, the Obama administration awarded the group $400,000 as part of a grant from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Countering Violent Extremism Task Force. However, DHS advisor Katharine Gorka and other aides of President Donald Trump decided to discontinue the grant in June 2017. A crowdfunding campaign established after the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally has raised $429,500 to go towards the organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nationalist Front (United States)</span> Loose coalition of white supremacist groups in the United States

The Nationalist Front was a loose coalition of radical right and white supremacists. The coalition was formed in 2016 by leaders of the neo-Nazi groups National Socialist Movement (NSM) and Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP). Its aim was to unite white supremacist and white nationalist groups under a common umbrella. Originally the group was named the Aryan Nationalist Alliance and was composed of neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan and White power skinhead organizations.

Far-right terrorism in Australia refers to far-right-ideologically influenced terrorism on Australian soil. Far-right extremist groups have existed in Australia since the early 20th century, however the intensity of terrorist activities have oscillated until the present time. A surge of neo-Nazism based terrorism occurred in Australia during the 1960s and the 1970s, carried out primarily by members of the Ustaše organisation. However in the 21st century, a rise in jihadism, the White genocide conspiracy theory, and after effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have fuelled far-right terrorism in Australia. Both the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) are responsible for responding to far-right terrorist threats in Australia.

References

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  2. Carol Midgley (12 December 2017). "White Right: Meeting the Enemy". thetimes.co.uk.
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