As a lifelong New Yorker, constantly surrounded by different ethnicities and cultures, it’s difficult for me to believe that there are still white supremacist freaks out there, actively trying to eradicate all minorities “before its too late!”
I’ve been lucky enough not to have to encounter any of these people (although their horrifying “glory suits” have haunted a few of my nightmares), but I wonder what I, an outspoken Jewish girl, would say if I did? I highly doubt that I’d have the guts to face any of these people with the same conviction as Mo Asumang, daughter of a black Ghanaian father and a white German mother, did in her documentary The Aryans.
While watching this 4-minute BBC video clip, I found myself cringing as Asumang approached these people. I half expected some horrible brawl to break out, but to my surprise, the confrontations were quite placid. Asumang never broke eye contact and always smiled sweetly as the Neo-Nazis insulted her and told her to “go back to Africa”–to which she smoothly responded: “Why should I do that? I was born here?”
Asumang fearlessly took on the Aryans, asking them simple questions about their mission and overall goals, while they faced her with tripped-up responses and bewildered expressions. As Asumang points out in the video, these people had imagined their enemy quite differently from a sweet German lady with kinky hair. They’d spent their whole lives demonizing all minorities, assigning to them so many speculative and polarized characteristics in an attempt to dehumanize them. But when they actually met “the enemy” they realized that she wasn’t too different from them (you know, minus the ghost mask)–and that must have been pretty terrifying.
In her effort to remind the Aryans that people are people, no matter the skin color, Asumang also reminds viewers that when you strip them of their porcelain-colored robes, the white supremacist freaks are merely human beings–just like us.
Pics via dangerousminds
