Nico Rivera
Features Editor
On Sunday, Nov. 23, the Leftists of Wooster held a screening of the 2017 documentary White Right: Meeting the Enemy, directed by Deeyah Khan. The documentary follows Khan throughout a trip to the United States as she meets with prominent members of white nationalist, white supremacist and other alt-right organizations. Her aim throughout the documentary is to understand why members are attracted to these movements and how they came to reach their extremist views and beliefs. The screening began at 7:00 p.m. in The Alley. Before the documentary began, Setsuko Matsuzawa, professor of sociology and anthropology and East Asian studies, gave some opening remarks to the audience. She briefly explained the premise of the documentary and said that she often shows it to her classes as an example of discussions about political extremism.
Khan has a long history of political activism. Khan was born in Norway to a family of Punjabi and Pashtun descent and is of Muslim Sunni faith. Throughout her childhood, Khan and her family faced discrimination and threats of violence by white nationalists for their racial and religious background. In the documentary, Khan explains her experience participating in anti-racism protests as a young child with her father.
At the age of 17, Khan moved to London to work and continue pursuing her emerging music career. In 2012, Khan released her first documentary, titled Banaz: A Love Story, which explored the honor-killing of Banaz Mahmod, a British-Kurdish woman. The documentary won an Emmy and a Peabody award. Khan gave an interview to the BBC in 2017 where she discussed the changing racial demographics of London and advocated for diversity and multiculturalism in Britain. After this interview, white nationalists sent her online hate mail and death threats. This experience drove Khan to travel to the United States to meet members of white nationalist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and the National Socialist Movement, which are both member groups of the now-defunct Nationalist Front coalition.
Perhaps most prominent among the members who Khan interviewed was Richard Spencer, the white ethnonationalist who helped organize the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The rally resulted in the death of Heather Hayer and injury to dozens of people when James Alex Fields Jr. rammed his car into the crowd of anti-protestors near the Downtown Mall. Khan herself was at the rally, embedded as a member of the press among protesting neo-Nazis. Khan also spoke with reformed members of white nationalist movements and white power bands, who came to reflect on their extremist views and eventually removed themselves from their respective movements. One of these men was Frank Meeink, a former skinhead who joined a white power group as a teenager. He explained to Khan that his experience in a physically abusive and neglective household led him to suicidality early in his adolescence. The appeal of the group to Meeink was an avenue of empowerment, and in his words, “a way to materially project my self-hatred.”
Following the documentary, the audience was invited to participate in an open discussion mediated by Professor Matsuzawa to discuss the extremist views presented in the documentary. In particular, the discussion revolved around the role of the internet in the process of radicalization and how digital communities can instrumentalize the loneliness and alienation that many members feel prior to joining movements.
Leo Walsh ’28 is a member of the Leftists of Wooster, and spoke about the organization’s reasoning for the screening. “Wooster can feel like a bubble sometimes, and while on campus we may not see the kind of behavior and ideology expressed by the individuals in this documentary, being able to spot the warning signs of extremist indoctrination is crucial to breaking these cycles. With the rise of extremist pipelines online, it’s easier than ever to get pulled in. Being able to spot the early signs of this rhetoric in a younger sibling, family member, student or member of your community can be the critical intervention needed. It doesn’t start with wearing swastikas and carrying torches, it’s a methodical ‘bread-crumbing,’ preying on isolation through the internet. It’s usually not this blatant, most supremacists aren’t wearing it on their sleeve but when you know dog whistles, you see them in everyday life. That’s why I feel this film is so important, it reminds us how these people get to this place.”