Re-reading Faulkner in Trumplandia: “[H]is ferocious conviction in the rightness of his own actions”
Season 2 of Mindhunter focuses on the Atlanta child murders; in one scene investigators interrogate a local KKK member.
As a lifelong white Southern male, I found the characterization of that man—what many would call a Georgia cracker—to be unsettling. He is arrogant, self-assured, and able, as he declares, to wrangle his way out of any trouble.
What is off, I think, is that in real life this type of poor Southern white man is an odd but distinct combination of embarrassed arrogance. They are stubbornly self-assured—and completely un-self-aware. But they are also painfully laconic, and if you look carefully, they often become flushed, the blood rising in their necks and faces as they swell with both anger and embarrassment.
In the audio of the wiretap that leads to this KKK member being interrogated, there were hints that Mindhunter is softening the characterizations (that dialogue, and the verb usage, is far too formal) so CONTINUE READING: Re-reading Faulkner in Trumplandia: “[H]is ferocious conviction in the rightness of his own actions” | radical eyes for equity
