| "White Right: Meeting the Enemy" | |
|---|---|
| Exposure episode | |
 | |
| Episodeno. | Series 7 Episode 2 |
| Directed by | Deeyah Khan |
| Featured music |
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| Cinematography by |
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| Editing by | Melanie Quigley |
| Original air date | 11 December 2017 (2017-12-11) |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
"White Right: Meeting the Enemy" is a 2017 documentary that aired as an episode of British current affairs TV seriesExposure. The documentary was directed byDeeyah Khan and produced by Deeyah's production companyFuuse.[1]
Deeyah travels to theUnited States to meet with some of the country's most prominentneo-Nazis andwhite supremacist leaders to seek to understand the personal and political reasons behind the apparent resurgence offar-right extremism in America. She made the film after being interviewed on TV about multiculturalism for which she received many threats and hate speech on social media.
Carol Midgley, writing forThe Times, wrote of the film: "Partinvestigative journalist, part almostpsychotherapist, Khan uses hard and soft skills to discover what drives such hatred and forces people to face her, their so-called enemy".[2]
"White Right: Meeting the Enemy" sees Deeyah sitting down face-to-face with neo-Nazis and white nationalists after receivingdeath threats and racially-chargedhate mail from the Far Right movement as a result of giving aBBC TV interview advocating diversity andmulticulturalism.[3][4] In the film Deeyah tries to get behind the hatred and the violent ideology, to try to understand why people embrace far right extremism.
After covering aKu Klux Klan rally inCharlottesville, Virginia, she received permission to meet with Jeff Schoep, the leader of theNational Socialist Movement (NSM). Afterwards she receives permission to film the group at theUnite the Right rally in Charlottesville, where the group gets into an altercation with and arepepper-sprayed byAntifacounter-protestors. Afterthe death of Heather Heyer and PresidentDonald Trump'scontroversial remarks on the rally, Schoep takes Deeyah to theurban decay inDetroit and explains that he moved the organization's headquarters to the city to take advantage of itseconomic decline for recruiting. Deeyah later tells Schoep about her experiences atanti-racist demonstrations during her childhood inNorway, and shows him both the BBC interview and the hate mail, causing Jeff to become visibly discomforted by theracial slurs in the emails.
Deeyah next travels to atraining camp run by the NSM's director forpublic relations, Brian Culpepper, in ruralTennessee. After becoming well-acquainted with him, she asks Culpepper if he would follow through with his desire todeport all non-whites to create awhite ethnostate if he would have to do it to her, and he demurs, then reluctantly says yes. She also visitsantisemitic andhomophobicskinhead Ken Parker at his home inJacksonville, Florida, where he is studyingpolitical science. Although Ken goes through with his plan to make antisemitic flyers and distribute them toJewish communities andsynagogues, he begins to visibly develop positive attitudes towardsMuslims, partially due to Deeyah's friendliness. His girlfriend would email her two weeks after the meeting informing her that Ken wasexpelled from theUniversity of North Florida for a threatening post of himself holding a rifle on a studentFacebook account however. Deeyah also notes the rise of thealt-right in the United States, and meetsRichard B. Spencer, who displays an openlyelitist attitude, andJared Taylor, who compares multiculturalism tomental illness andHIV/AIDS.
InMilwaukee, Deeyah meets with Arno Michaelis, a former skinhead and lead singer of thewhite power rock band Centurion, who expresses remorse for his violent actions. She also travels toNew York City to meet with a former skinhead,Frank Meeink, who explains he was drawn to neo-Nazism due to his troubled youth with intensephysical abuse from analcoholic father, providing him a source topsychologically project his hatred. She also meets with Pardeep Singh Kaleka, a survivor of the2012 Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting inOak Creek, learning how he now works with Michaelis to dissuade youth from extremism. Culpepper also makes aSkype call to Deeyah announcing his intent to resign from the NSM partially because of his meeting with her.
| Year | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Emmy Award | Current Affairs.[5] | Won |
| Royal Television Society | Director - Documentary/Factual & Non Drama.[6] | Won | |
| PeaceJam | Special Jury award[7] | Won | |
| Rory Peck Award | Sony Impact Award for Current Affairs[8] | Won | |
| WFTV Awards | The BBC News and Factual Award[9] | Won | |
| Asian Media Awards | Best Investigation.[10] | Won | |
| British Academy Film Awards | Current Affairs.[11] | Nominated | |
| Frontline Club Awards | Broadcasting.[12] | Nominated | |
| 2019 | APA Film Festival | Best Short Film Award | Won |
| Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival | Jury Awards[13] | Won |