“Why, you are dealing with nothing but a deceitful blue-eyed devil walking around here on this Earth, who will lead you to nowhere but Hell as long as you follow him.”
I am endlessly fascinated by the architecture of the racist mind. It’s part of my overall interest in deviance, be it spiritual (dark-path occultists), carnal (lifestyle fetishists) or intellectual.I don’t place myself above any of it. It’s all part of the human story… prismatic reflections of our nature. Everybody’s weird some kind of way.
George Lincoln Rockwell would make a good subject for an HBO film. (Vincent D’Onofrio, ring me up, we’ll talk.) As founder of the American Nazi Party, he stirred up a lot of publicity in the ’60s, though I don’t think he ever “commanded” more than, like, 20 disciples at a time. And one of them wound up assassinating him.
(What you mean, “assassinate”? That cracka got SHOT!)
Somewhere online I found an mp3 file of Rockwell’s 1965 TV interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. It’s a 10-minute interrogation, and the money’s at the end when Rockwell is asked about rumors of “strong homosexual tendencies” in the American Nazi Party.
Rockwell didn’t take offense. Matter fact, he said this:
“In my organization, I have men who were homosexuals. They were sucked into that filth, just like drunkards or dope fiends. And I have been able to rescue them. And I’m not a bit ashamed of that.”
There’s more to learn here, and I’m not being snarky. If anybody knows where I can read up on the intersection of homosexuality and fascism, please leave a comment.
My juxtaposition of Rockwell’s interview with a 4-minute slice of a Malcolm X speech isn’t just irony. As Rockwell told his Canadian inquisitors, “I spoke before 9,000 Black Muslims in Chicago and I was cheered.” Rockwell dug Elijah Muhammad because they both wanted the same thing – separation of the races.Click here to hear Rockwell; click here to hear Malcolm.
The Malcolm X track (“Crime in Harlem”) is from a CD, “The Wisdom of Malcolm X,” which can be downloaded via eMusic and iTunes.
11 comments:
UBM:
An interesting article on homosexuality and fascism here, and a fascinating counterpoint from the right here.
Bertolucci's "Il Conformista", which plays with these themes, is definitely worth a watch, although its exploration of the connection between sexual repression and fascism struck me as fairly shallow. I remember there being an interesting gay fascist thug in Costa-Gravas's "Z" as well; I enjoyed the latter film quite a bit, and I remember being reminded of that character in the midst of all the recent discussion of Jeff Gannon, Matt Sanchez, Ted Haggard, Marc Foley et al. There's definitely something fascinating going on with these over-the-top gay sex workers and their hypermasculinity tying in with the Republican macho machine and its Christian fascist supporters.
I remember reading in a biography of Himmler years ago that homosexuality was a known issue in the SS, and that Himmler issued many edicts about it needing to be removed. Ernst Roehm, and a number of the leaders of the SA (precursor to the SS) were gay; that was one of the pretexts for the "Night of the Long Knives".
I know when I found out that Tom of Finland was in the Finnish Waffen SS, my response was "and?"
Yes, yes Roehm and the Night of the Long Knives.
A book somebody once borrowed, when I released it wouldn't come back, I forgot who it was, strongly suggests itself in this context.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Theweleit
Male fantasies, Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1987 and Polity Press, 1987
I think that leads into the paradoxical Nazi context: prosecuting homosexuals (not so new historically) and adoring the male body of the soldier, ... hard as Krupp Steel.
LeaNder
aka Kraut de Cologne
hmmm, this was a mistake, didn't I use preview???
released = realized
too late.
Thanks to all. I've got some interesting reading ahead of me.
Mr. Mills,
When you say you are "fascinated by the architecture of the racist mind," are you using the traditional definition of the word racist or the more modern, amorphous, liberal definition of racist?
Also, are you of the mind that the "architecture" of the "racist mind" is one of complexity or simplicity?
Lastly, and depending on your answers from above, can the fascinating architecture of a "racist" mind be encapsulated by a mere label who's very definition is in question?
Hey Thordaddy.
1. I'm using the more modern, amorphous, liberal definition of racist.
2. I think the "architecture" is one of complexity... hence the fascination.
3. Yes.
I stumbled across your blog while browsing some stuff at IMDB, and I have to say it's an interesting read. I work in a prison, and some of your topics speak very much to what I see and deal with each and every day.
So my hat's off to you sir.
Mr. Mills,
Thank you for your straightforward responses. If I could ask some follow-up questions to further this fascination of yours, it would be greatly appreciated to get your answer?
Do you think that the architectual complexity of the "racist mind" is primarily derived from empirical evidence, the amorphous nature of the definition of "racist," a combination of both or something else entirely?
Do you believe that a "racist mind" is within the capacity of all human beings and those of the non-racist mind are suppressing this capacity?
Do you have a non-racist mind and does this suggest you retain an architectually simplistic cerebral structure?
And furthermore, do you like pie?
http://atheism.about.com/b/a/096817.htm
http://multitudes.samizdat.net/article1255.html
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A17821
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-8304(199322)60%3A2%3C527%3AWLFMAT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U
http://www.leaderu.com/jhs/lively.html
http://www.germanic.ucla.edu/NGR/ngr17/brkeller.htm
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