Friday, October 10, 2008

CSA: The Confederate States of America

This week I've been working with a 26-year old, college-educated, happily married black man in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He's not a Mason, but after noticing my Masonic ring, he struck up a conversation about Freemasonry. He knows a few Prince Hall Masons from Pennsylvania, men he went to college with.

After getting past the "do you guys really worship Satan?" stuff that had gotten into his head from too much Internet surfing, we discussed Masonry in an interesting and unique way, with him telling me some things he knows about the workings of Prince Hall lodges.

He also provided me with a unique perspective on what it's like to be an African-American in the South.

He lives in Georgia, right on the border with Tennessee, which is much more "integrated" than the lily-white county where I live in rural north Georgia. He asked how he could join a regular lodge in Georgia. We talked about how he'd never be allowed to do that because of the unwritten rules of racism here.

Granted, I've known him less than a week, but I've spent all day with him several days, and based on what I've seen so far, once I've known him the required time, I'd have no problem with signing his petition and recommending him based on his character.

He's as law-abiding as you or I, yet he's had much more interaction with the police than most of you reading this. Traffic stops, he says, have been and are so routine that he checks his brake and tail lights every couple of days, and always drives under the speed limit.

Once, he told me, sitting a stop light, he was approached by a police officer who told him he'd done a "random" license-plate check and discovered that the car he was driving was not the same color as shown in the records. The tag was on the proper make and model of car, but was light blue instead of white. He'd recently had the older model car repainted.

Apparently, this type of thing is fairly common when you're black in the South. Not being a cop or a black man, I wouldn't know.

But imagine how much worse it would be if the South had won the Civil War.

That's the premise of an intriguing 2004 film called CSA: The Confederate States of America. It's showing tonight — Friday, Oct. 10 — on the Independent Film Channel (IFC). Set your DVR to record it; parts of it you'll want to see more than once.

Imagine a world where the South won the War. Slaves weren't freed. Abraham Lincoln wasn't assassinated; he fled on the Underground Railroad, was captured, imprisoned and then exiled to Canada, where he died in 1905 lamenting that he had never "truly cared for the Negro." Jefferson Davis moved into the White House to run the country. Mexico and South America were eventually conquered by the CSA. America supported Hitler. Television programs and commercials were blatantly racist; you can even buy slaves from home shopping channels.

The movie is presented as if it's a British documentary about the history of America, and you get the feeling that you're watching it on a cheesy UHF channel late at night. During station breaks you're presented with news updates and local and national commercials.

Parts of the movie are high comedy and satire, but some of it is dead-on frightening in its depiction of institutionalized racism.

First in the alternative history of the nation, and later in news updates about current events, you meet a Kennedy-esque dynastic clan that has been involved in national politics since the Civil War. What happens to a fifth-generation senator with higher political ambitions is cruelly hilarious.

In this alternative world, blacks in America were kept subservient and uneducated; this point is counterbalanced with interviews with educated blacks from England and Canada, discussing the state of their brothers and sisters within the CSA borders.

I hope you get a chance to see this film. You can watch a trailer here.

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20 comments:

  1. Fortunately, my Queen and I have basic cable which allow us to experience and enjoy life as oppose to watching others live theirs. Also, I try to limit my intake of the Tell-Lie-Vision, however, it is unfortunate that we are unable to watch this program; hopefully someone will post it to Google Video or freedocumentaries.org Thanks for the post WS.

    Keep the mind tuned to a positive frequency!

    In'lakech (I Am Another U)

    Ekam Sat (Truth is One)


    Universal Light Being

    aka Osiris

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  2. The civil war was not about slavery, it was about states' rights. In regards to slavery, the South was dead wrong and the North was right; but in regards to states' rights, the North was dead wrong and the South was right.

    Abraham Lincoln didn't free the slaves because he wanted to see them liberated; he freed them, initially, to destroy the Southern economy (the Emancipation Proclamation only applied to the slaves in the South). After the war, all slaves were freed in order to maintain the idea that the war was about slavery and thereby justify the war to the people.

    In the long term, the civil war served as a starting point for a lot of change. It was the first step on a long road towards racial equality. But it was also the first step towards the overly powerful federal government that we have today.

    My point is this, what if there hadn't been a civil war? Or what if the South had won? Would it really be as bad as this film presents it? Or do you think that state by state we would have seen slavery abolished and steps taken towards racial equality?

    Personally, I think that we would still have seen slavery abolished but I think that it would have been a longer process, perhaps much longer.

    So do the ends justify the means? Was Lincoln right to expand the powers of the Presidency and the Federal government, disregard the Constitution, and trample the rights of citizens and states alike to achieve what the war did?

    And let’s face it, the war did improve the status of blacks in America, but they were still oppressed, poor, abused, mistreated second class citizens.

    Would we have been better off letting the Southern states abolish slavery on their own timeline? Perhaps the racial tension would have been less had we let them decide to abolish slaver democratically rather than forcing the decision on them via an illegal war.

    I don't know...

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  3. The South did not win?

    What the Hell.....?

    Things seem the same as back then, I think we won!

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  4. Thank you for the head's up. I immediately went into the family room and set up the DVR to record the show.

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  5. police where I'm from (Tennessee), pull many of those same tricks on young folks too. When I was 19 I was stopped by a cop who told me that my tags came back to a blue truck instead of a white truck. The next thing he asked me was if he could search my vehicle. At the time I poured concrete and had a cop who flagged traffic for us. He ran my tags the next day and said everything was fine, cops do that stuff a lot. But I can imagine it's alot worse for black folk down here.

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  6. Something interesting from that film, you'll notice, was the conclusion of the slave economy being spread to South America and the eventual economic problems it lead to. When I saw that, I noticed some deep parallels to the import and slave wage economy that we have right now going on with China and the present model of all our manufacturing being sent off shore to slave wage labor overseas.

    It was definitely worth seeing.

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  7. Harry Turtledove has done a series of alternative history novels, begining with "The Guns of the South," in which the CSA wins the war, with the help of time travelers from South Africa. They have an agenda of changing the anti-apartheid leadership of the U.S. in the 20th Century, so they assist the confederacy with advanced technology. the CSA then owes them.

    This series continues through the 20th century, with the CSA allied with Germany and South Africa, etc. It's good science fiction, well written and believable. And as in all good SF, a warning of how simple it would be to be very different from the way things are.

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  8. So sad people still think of the South like this movie. Even old 'honest' Abe campaigned that slavery would remain into the next century. And the south didn't want to rule the USA, they wanted to rule themselves. Jeff Davis wouldn't have moved to the White House, the South had their own.

    They did as provided for by the Declaration of Independance, (second paragraph, particularly) under who's authority they were established, and by who's authority they sought to put to practice, and in who's disregard these states were punished.

    Wonder why our country is in a sustained falter, groping around for the edge of the cliff to dive over.

    *sigh*

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  9. An excellent watch. Like all good fiction it makes you think. You can watch it at
    http://www.racialicious.com/2008/10/09/quoted-uestlove-on-the-little-things/

    S & F, Bro. Kris

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  10. "a 26-year old, college-educated, happily married black man" experiencing racial profiling here in the good ol' US of A!

    Who would have thunk it!

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  11. Here we go again, the same old, "police pick on me because the color of my skin, because I'm a young person", blah blah blah. People just need to learn to take responsibility for their actions.

    Each of these cases of police misconduct that any of you cited clearly showed the officers had probable cause or at least reasonable suspicion to believe something was wrong. And if you really believe that the officers were acting based on racial motivations I hope you made a complaint with anyone who would listen. But you know what, you didn't, why? Because you know you were wrong or that at least the officer was making a good faith effort.

    In the post itself you talk about the black guy checking his lights to make sure they work so he wont get pulled over, well yeah, sounds like a good idea, I check my lights to, because the law says they have to work, how dare an officer stop me because I have malfunctioning equipment, who does he think he is!!!

    And to the poster "Nimrod", I sure hope you made a complaint, but like I said earlier, you didn't did you? Because you are failing to tell the entire truth about why you got stopped, I’m sure the officer mentioned the color being wrong but what was the other reasons you got stopped, speed? Equipment violations? Driving like an idiot? You say, "Cops do that stuff a lot", that’s a pretty broad authorative statement, where does this information come from exactly? But I guess your user name says it all.

    As far as this show goes, it was nothing but reverse discrimination and promoting it on a Masonic blog is un-Masonic in itself, not to mention the nastiness you have for our country's law enforcement.

    Hmmm.. I think you "masons" may want to go over your charges again, because I'm pretty sure there is something in the first one that would encourage you not to behave in this manner.

    This will be the last time I ever visit this site, this was absolutely ridiculous and ruined an otherwise decent and interesting blog.

    Accept responsibility for your actions folks!

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  12. I come to your site today because I have reached a milestone in my life. I have been wondering for years, being the best mother, wife, business women, and a good citizen, I still seek for a greater destination.

    After I graduated with my Master in Business Administration and Marketing, I was focused on climbing the corporate ladder and fulfilling the American Dream.

    As I was driving my husband to the doctor today I told him I was up all night defining several vocabularies, ie religion, beliefs, morals, ethics. I came up with a word: uniligon.

    I told him I am so sadden by the separation we still experience today. We are all human beings and should accept and appreciate everyone for who they are and do better to help those who are not. We all believe and a higher power and it is our motivational factor in life. One religion has more power than another. If we dissect the believes, all the religion have the same fundamentals.

    We should be philanthropic when given the opportunity and live our lives with highest standards. Character counts!

    He has recommended me to research the believe of Mason. He said a friend claim that he was a Mason and educated him a little about it.

    This where I have ended up tonight.

    I do hope that your belief will do good and help all human beings and continue to support the right people to better for the world.

    I do hope you can spread this more and quickly because I'm so sadden by what is being demonstrated in today's society.

    I have concluded to go back to school and get my Doctorate Degree in Education. My goal is reform and introduce a curriculum to early education and help children understand the economics and marketing schemes in which they are exposed to everyday. So that our future generation will be more educated and not experience the corruption in wall street, main street and Congress today.

    God Bless.

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  13. Thanks for the heads up, I set it up to record, the show will be on again @ 1800 CST on Monday 20th of October.

    -Bro Vick

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  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  15. When Mississippi became the first state to secede from the Union, the state legislature wrote to their U.S. Senators - including Jefferson Davis - and instructed them to return home immediately. Davis returned to the farm he loved & went to work on his land - without any regard for or interest in politics. One day he received a letter from the newly-formed CSA informing him that he had been elected president. Out of his sense of duty, he submitted himself for service as the new nation's president. It is my belief that Jefferson Davis was a gentleman, a farmer, and a scholar, and would in no way remain as head of a government any longer than necessary or prudent. It is very unlikely that Davis would have had anything to do with any such fantasy as you all have attempted to describe. I prefer reality & history as it really was. Because many of you are so blind-sided by shallow interpretations, misinformation, propaganda, even lies, you cannot begin to see the validity of the statements by Tony & Byron. Turn off the Telly & read more than a few history books!

    By the way, lest anyone should believe that Texas Masons are racist bumpkins who delight in keeping the "black" man down, San Gabriel Lodge No. 89, Georgetown, Texas, last night received a favorable committee report on an African-American petitioner & elected him to receive the Mysteries. We will initiate him next Wednesday evening & we look forward to further opportunities to consider petitions from other well-qualified men. So Mote It Be!
    Kyle Myers, J.S., San Gabriel Lodge No. 89, A.F.&A.M., Georgetown, Texas
    P.M., Rudolph Krause Lodge No. 433, Lake Charles, Louisiana

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  16. my father in law can't wait to see this after I told him about it.

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  17. "San Gabriel Lodge No. 89, Georgetown, Texas, last night received a favorable committee report on an African-American petitioner & elected him to receive the Mysteries."

    This is awesome!

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  18. ""To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary," CHE GUARVA

    I can see why you like this guy, Twi Bowl. W.S., I would post to the Corral, but it seems to full or something. It isn't showing the newer posts. Perhaps a part 2 is in order?

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  19. 147 years ago, Another Illinois Senator caused a "Constitutional Crises" by Ignoring Congress. Only Congress Had the "Right to Declare WAR". That "Constitutional Crises" issue was also ignored by the "Supreme Court" then, More "Americans" ( Both North and South ) did died in that War than in the Entire History of this country because of a ignored "Constitutional Crises".

    Article I, Section 8.

    “To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
    To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;
    To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
    To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
    To provide and maintain a navy;
    To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
    To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
    To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;”


    Do Not Repeat This Mistake by ignoring the Constitutions Requirements for the Presidents Election.

    Article II, Section 1.

    ” No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States. “
    Article VI
    All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.
    This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
    The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.
    Amendment XII
    The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;--The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;--the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

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  20. A PROBIBLE FUTURE
    Please note that Texas is the only state with a legal right to secede from the Union.
    (Reference the Texas-American Annexation Treaty of 1848.)
    We Texans love y’all, (Some More Than Others) but we’ll probably have to take action since B. Hussein Obama won the election. We’ll miss you too (“Again, Some More Than Others”).
    Here is what can happen:
    #1: Barack Hussein Obama becomes President of the United States,
    “Governor Recalls ALL Texas National Guard Units”, And Texas immediately secedes from the Union.
    #2: George W. Bush will become the President of the Republic of Texas.
    So what does Texas have to do to survive as a Republic? Not Much at All.
    1. NASA is just south of Houston, Texas. We will control the space industry.
    2. We refine over 85% of the gasoline, aviation fuels and diesel in the United States.
    3 Oil - we can supply all the oil that the Republic of Texas will need for the next 300 years.
    Yankee states? Sorry about that.
    4. Natural Gas - again we have all we need and it’s too bad about those Northern States.
    John Kerry and Al Gore will have to figure out a way to keep them warm….
    5. Defense Industry–we have over 65% of it. The term “Don’t mess with Texas,”
    will take on a whole new meaning.
    6. Computer Industry - we currently lead the nation in producing computer chips
    and communications–small companies like Texas Instruments, Dell Computer, EDS,
    Raytheon, National Semiconductor, Motorola, Intel, AMD, Atmel, Applied Materials,
    Ball Miconductor, Dallas Semiconductor, Delphi , Nortel, Alcatel, etc, etc. The list goes on and on.
    7. Medical Care - We have the largest research centers for cancer research,
    the best burn centers and the top trauma units in the world, as well as other large
    health centers. Dallas has some of the best hospitals in the United States.

    8. We have enough colleges to keep us going: University of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech,
    Rice, SMU, University of Houston, Baylor, UNT( University of North Texas ),
    Texas Women’s University, etc. Ivy grows better in the South anyway.

    9. We have a ready supply of workers.( Right To Work – NO UNIONs REQUIRED ) We could just open the border when we need some more.

    10. Automotive Plants – 2 so far, 1 at Dallas (Ford) and 1 at San Antonio (Toyota).
    11. We have essential control of the paper industry, plastics, insurance, etc.
    12. In case of a foreign invasion, we have the Texas National Guard and the Texas Air National Guard.
    We don’t have an Army, but since everybody down here has at least six rifles and a pile of ammo, we can
    raise an Army in 24 hours if we need one. If the situation really gets bad, we can always call the
    Department of Public Safety and ask them to send over Chuck Norris and a couple of Texas Rangers.

    13. We are totally self-sufficient in beef, poultry, hogs, and several types of grain, fruit and vegetables,
    and let’s not forget seafood from the Gulf. Also, everybody down here knows how to cook them so that
    they taste good. Don’t need any food.
    14.Banking, The Republic of Texas alone has the 7th largest World GDP, with out the rest of the United States.
    15. All Federal Prisons, They can be “Quickly Emptied Out” by “Deporting /Repatriating All the Foreign Prisoners “, to the nearest Union State Lines and released (With or With Custody). Problem Solved.
    This just names a few of the items that will keep the Republic of Texas in good shape. There isn’t a thing out there that we need and don’t have
    .
    We “Texans” will have a Clean Republic, as “No Yankee Trash Trains Will Be Shipped To or Through Here”.
    Now to the rest of the United States under President Obama:
    Since you won’t have the refineries to get gas for your cars, only your President Obama will be able to
    drive around in his big 9 mpg SUV. The rest of the United States will have to walk or ride bikes.

    You won’t have any natural gas to heat your homes, but since Mr. Obama has predicted global warming,
    you will not need the gas as long as you survive the 2000 years it will take to get enough heat from Global
    Warming.

    You won’t have any TV as the Space Center in Houston will cut off satellite communications.

    Signed, The People of Texas
    P.S. This is not a threatening letter - just a note to give you something to think about!

    SLEEP WELL TONIGHT THE EYES OF TEXAS ARE UPON YOU!!
    One Nation Under God
    Well, as long as they have “essential control” over plastics and insurance, “etc.”, then really there’s no reason to stay in this filthy banana republic.

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