“You Racist Mother…”

I think most of you are going to enjoy this one.  Speaking of reenactors, I enjoyed reading this piece about the experience of one extra in Spielberg’s Lincoln movie.

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13 comments… add one
  • victor Jan 11, 2013 @ 5:52

    Fun video. It does unfairly paint a lot of Southern re-enactors as racist, but one does have to wonder if some of them are racist. Look, when I was younger I was taught in schools the sanitized version of Civil War history, so I bought in (to a degree) to the Lost Cause myth. But I was never racist or prejudiced in that regard. So I can understand who “innocent” people can get caught up in it. But this video is right in basically asking the viewer to reconsider the principles being upheld by Southern groups. You can’t take slavery out of the equation.

  • Chris Evans Nov 18, 2012 @ 17:23

    I forgot to mention another piece of Civil War movie trivia from the piece. The actor Mark Moses playing the Confederate Officer played ‘Sgt Owen’ in ‘Gettysburg’. He can be seen reporting to Jeff Daniels Chamberlain during the battle of Little Round Top.

    Chris

    • Bryan Cheeseboro Nov 19, 2012 @ 8:39

      “The actor Mark Moses playing the Confederate Officer played ‘Sgt Owen’ in ‘Gettysburg’. He can be seen reporting to Jeff Daniels Chamberlain during the battle of Little Round Top.”

      Mark Moses must like history because he’s been in a lot of period movies and TV shows. He played U.S. Grant at West Point in the North & South TV minseries (1985); Lt. Wolfe in Platoon (1986); Sgt. Owen in Gettysburg (1993); and Herman “Duck” Phillips in Mad Men (2007-2010).

      • Patricia Evans Nov 19, 2012 @ 11:39

        I agree about Mark Moses.

        He was also in two other excellent war movies ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ and TNT’s ‘Rough Riders’.

        Chris

        • Bryan Cheeseboro Nov 19, 2012 @ 13:07

          You’re right. I have those two movies and forgot them….

  • Chris Evans Nov 18, 2012 @ 17:16

    Interesting they started to sing the song that is sung around the campfire in ‘Glory’. Someone must have been watching that recently and got inspired.

    Chris

  • Bummer Nov 18, 2012 @ 14:13

    I’m only offended when stereotyped as an old, facist, racist, conservative, white guy.

    Bummer

  • Cris Alvarez Nov 18, 2012 @ 10:10

    I don’t think it’s offensive. Maybe a little crass. The point of the sketch is to provide some laughs but also to make a comment on society. The audience for these guys is probably liberal with plenty of minorities included. So most of the sketch pretty much mocks southern re-enactors, sort of asking them, without actually asking, are you racist or not? Because you always have to wonder about those who still love “Southern ideals.” The question then is how to end the skit since plenty of the audience would like to see a bit comeuppance given to these re-enactors. Now to end it with our two comedians robbing them may seem to be crass and racist but that bit is sort of smoothed out by them speaking in a very dignified and intelligent manner.

    By the way Nell, they’re comedians, not educators. If you feel that watching a comedy skit provided you direct guidance on how to behave in life, that’s a problem. Thought I believe that by providing analysis, you’re telling us that you get it as comedy but someone else less educated or intelligent might not understand that. Now ask yourself who you think the audience of this skit is and how that comports with whom you believe will get confused and you end up appearing either racist yourself or an intellectual elitist.

    • Kevin Levin Nov 18, 2012 @ 11:20

      I tend to agree with you. There are probably multiple reasons to be offended by this video if one so chooses to be.

  • Nell Nov 18, 2012 @ 9:10

    So the message here is either (1) it’s okay to rob people at gunpoint if they are racists, or (2) reinforcement of a negative stereotype that black people like to commit armed robbery.

    The slave reenactor skit concept had potential. They failed miserably in the execution of this one though, and in a highly offensive way.

  • John B. Nov 18, 2012 @ 8:38

    Some of your readers are going to be offended that black men are being portrayed as clownish, armed thugs who rob people at gunpoint.

    • Kevin Levin Nov 18, 2012 @ 8:41

      People are offended all the time by what I post.

    • Chris L. Robinson Nov 18, 2012 @ 11:28

      They didn’t portray blacks as clownish thugs. They portrayed a a couple of black guys offended by modern Americans pretending that Confederates fought for any kind of freedom that modern Americans should respect. They were only pretending to be clownish.

      You should see the one where they portray slaves on the auction block going from fear to disappointment as they are continually passed over in the bidding for other, “better”, slaves. Maybe not so funny to watch with my white friends, but hysterical to watch with my black ones.

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