My daughter shared this video she found that is very applicable now. I cleaned it up to sync the video with the sound. The anti-racist & anti-fascist message is very succinct, important, and well designed to get the message about how otherness is used to divide for an ulterior motive.
It is important that Americans see that what is occurring has happened before. We have the means to mitigate it before it metastasizes. It seems many are getting the message and helping to get it out. The embedded two-minute video is the perfect encapsulation of what we must get across.
As reported in the Washington Post,
In the aftermath of the weekend’s deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, scores of Americans wondered how they should respond to the hate-fueled violence that left three people dead and dozens of others injured. Some found an answer in a nearly 75-year-old anti-fascist propaganda film.
“Don’t Be A Sucker” is a 17-minute cautionary tale about complacency in the face of hatred and xenophobia. Produced by the U.S. War Department in 1943 and rereleased in an updated form in 1947, it found new relevance with a 21st century audience horrified by the neo-Nazis and white nationalists gathering in central Virginia.
Among those to share the film was Michael Oman-Reagan, a Canadian researcher and anthropologist, who tweeted a clip of “Don’t Be A Sucker” that has since been shared nearly 120,000 times. Another clip of the film reached the top of Reddit’s home page Sunday night. Celebrities tweeted it out, as did Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who told his followers “PLEASE WATCH THIS!”
A very important anti-fascist video before our times for our times
Following is the transcript as I heard it. If I missed a few words let me know and I will modify.
White Demagogue: I see Negroes holding jobs that belong to me and you. Now I ask you if we allow this thing to go on, what’s going to become of us real Americans.
Immigrant to White Listener: I have heard this kind of talk before. But I never expected to hear it in Ameria.
White Listener to Immigrant: This fellow seems to know what he is talking about.
White Demagogue: What really matters, are we going to do something about? You’ll find it right here in this little pamphlet. The truth about heroes and foreigners. The truth about the Catholic Church.
Immigrant to White Listener: Do you believe in that kind of talk?
White Listener to immigrant: All in all, it makes pretty good sense to me.
White Demagogue: And I tell you friends we will never be able to call this country our own until it’s a country without. Without what?
Random audience member: Yeah without what!
White Demagogue: Without negroes. Without alien foreigners. Without Catholics. Without freemasons.
White Listener to Immigrant: What’s wrong with the Masons. I am a Mason. Hey, that fellow is talking about me.
Immigrant to White Listener: And that makes a difference doesn’t.
White Demagogue: These are your enemies. These are the people who are trying to take over our country. Now you know them. You know what they stand for and it’s up to you and me to fight them. Fight them and destroy them before they destroy us. Thank you.
Immigrant to White Listener: Before he said Masons, you were ready to agree with him.
White Listener to Immigrant: Ah yes, but he was talking about, what about those other people.
Immigrant to White Listener: In this country, we have no other people. We are American people, us.
White Listener to Immigrant: What about you. You are not American. Are you?
Immigrant to White Listener: I was born in Hungary, but now I am an American citizen. And I have seen what this kind of talk can do. I saw it in Berlin.
White Listener to Immigrant: What were you doing there?
Immigrant to White Listener: I was a professor at the University. I heard the same words we have heard today. But I was a fool then. I thought Nazis were crazy people; stupid fanatics. But unfortunately, it was not so. You see they knew that they were not strong enough to conquer a unified country. So they split Germany into small groups. They use prejudice as a practical weapon to cripple the nation.