nazi memorabilia at AWA??

[davemerrill]

After the show this year - well, after the dealers room was closed, anyway - I found out that a dealer was selling Nazi memorabilia in the dealers room. No, really, here's a photo.



Neil took this photo. I had walked past this dealer at least twice but didn't notice the Nazi flag. I noticed the German Army WWII style uniforms, the hats, the "yaoi" armbands with "yaoi" where the swastika would be, but didn't see any actual swastikas. But they were there, pictures don't lie.

I'm deeply embarrassed that I and AWA and its staff, directors, and attendees, are in any way associated with somebody who would profit from trivializing one of the most horrific episodes in human history. Nazi memorabilia has no place being sold at AWA.

Right now there's a thread on the message board where discussion of this issue is taking place, and I urge everyone to take a moment to let the convention know your thoughts on this.

My personal feeling? I am going to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that this dealer, or any other dealer, will not be selling Nazi memorabilia at AWA next year, or any other year. It does not belong at AWA. Full stop, end of story.

Comments

[daryl surat (from livejournal.com)]

I snapped a picture on Friday morning of this dude's booth that had the jackets plus a SS flag and posted it on Twitter. I figured "this dude's at every convention selling this stuff, so it must be okay" and made a quip about how it's okay to be into incest, pedophilia, and also Nazis as long as you're a lady then moved on with my day.

What isn't shown in the picture I took is this particular flag, which I'm pretty sure was in fact there throughout the weekend. The photo Dave posted is from the angle walking towards the entrance. I took mine from the opposite angle. Maybe it was the crowds at the place, maybe they just didn't have it out, but I do want to also note that this dude, in addition to the uniforms and armbands and flags, was straight-up selling framed painted portraits of Adolf Hitler at AWA come Sunday morning.

The Internet's reaction to this thus far is "that's just allowed at that con because it's the South and people are more cool with it down there." I however will say this dude hits all the major East Coast cons and sells this stuff. If Anime Boston or Otakon or whomever gives him a talking to, that's got about as much weight as telling someone in the Artist's Alley who brought a ton of merchandise of licensed characters/images to knock it off. These people aren't actually going to stop selling something. They're going to maybe hide it behind the table or under something else since they already packed the stuff. The time to nail these people is before they even load their trucks to come down.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

And how sad is it that in this day and age this: " The Internet's reaction to this thus far is "that's just allowed at that con because it's the South and people are more cool with it down there." " is a reality?

Of course Daryl should have said "as a subset on the internet that is the insular world of anime fandom" altho...I take that back, I'm sure there would be the same feeling in much of the mainstream. Sadly. All I have to do is turn on the TV and see/hear the same kind of mentality, but that drifts into politics and all that crap and I stop now.

Of course I have a view that the more one tries to suppress something like this the more power is given to it which makes it more attractive to those of the mindset, education and reason being better weapons but sometimes, yeah, you gotta fumigate the house and not just swat a roach.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

The Internet thinks the South is the only place in America with racists and neo-Nazis? Think again, Internet. Hint: "famous potatoes".

Seriously, I am in the evidence-gathering stage right now, waiting for AWA admin to catch their breath from the show. I'm getting a lot of support on the AWA message board as well, and some private message action too.

When all my ducks are in a row, I will make a formal type complaint to the entire AWA administration.

This extends a lot further than AWA however. It might be time for, say, Anime News Network to have a front-page article asking "why are there Nazis at our anime conventions?"

[warpig1979.livejournal.com]

The Internet thinks the South is the only place in America with racists and neo-Nazis?

The state with the most groups on the SPLC Hate Map: California, at 84. (Idaho has a mere 18. The Aryan Nations actually got sued out of town and moved to Florida about ten years ago...)

But yeah, good luck with the project here. This outfit seems to have kinda slipped through fandom's tendency to let acts of terrible crassness slide by unmentioned. Cheers for standing up to say something about it.

[footyfoot.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, come on down to Dallas and eat at Horst Wessel's BlitzenChicken Shack, half-price off right wings and assholes if you give the Party Salute! Death's Heads n' Gizzards complimentary! We LOVE our Nazis down here!"

Bullshit. That's just a cop out by people who don't want to look too closely at what squiggles around under the rocks in their own garden. Neo-Nazi shitheads are everywhere in the US, if you care to open your eyes and look.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Dallas, maybe not.

Madisonville? Vidor? More likely.

Racism and fascism find their strongest support in America in rural areas.

[sixstop.livejournal.com]

The Internet thinks the South is the only place in America with racists and neo-Nazis?

yes. as near as I can tell, thats exactly what the rest of the english speaking north america are happy to believe.

Probably stems from cross association with the confederate battle flag.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

People need to watch 'The Blues Brothers' again. I hate Illinois Nazis.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

It also stems from the fact that those ideas are stronger in rural areas, and the South is more generally rural in population distribution than most of the rest of the country.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

We even have 'em up here - not surprising, as Canada is mostly rural, largely white dealing with an influx of "other" immigrants, and can be just as racist as anybody.

We used to live down the street from this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Z%C3%BCndel

I'll tell ya, it's weird finding Klan memorabilia in an antique mall in Ontario. But it's there.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Daryl, you mind posting that pic to the AWA message board in the thread, or do you mind if I post it, with your quote about the Adolph Hitler portrait?

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I see DFS beat me to the Godwinizing of the thread, which is excellent.

[daryl surat (from livejournal.com)]

I went ahead and linked the post along with a slightly higher-resolution version of the photo I took over on the AWA board. My old camera phone isn't fancy enough for auto-focus, but it gets the idea across. Some of the eagle crosses and swastikas on the jackets and hats are a bit too fine detail to see in my picture, but if you full-size Neil's picture you can see this stuff.

Every year Dragon*Con does their big costume parade, and one section of the parade typically features World War II stuff. The first time I went to Dragon*Con was about 3-4 years ago with a friend who was set to march in the parade as an SS officer. At Dragon*Con you can just wear the full-on Nazi uniform with swastika armband and the like, and nobody bats an eye because that's not anywhere close to being the most terrifying sight there. Anyway, he got a lot of compliments on his outfit from people walking up to him, and they'd say things like "yeah I would've worn my stuff too, but I didn't want to risk it around all these porch monkeys." Then they'd walk off.

So yeah, I never went back to Dragon*Con.

[warpig1979.livejournal.com]

At Dragon*Con you can just wear the full-on Nazi uniform with swastika armband and the like, and nobody bats an eye because that's not anywhere close to being the most terrifying sight there.

This is an excellent summation of the Dragoncon experience.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

The only time I ever saw Nazis at an Atlanta Fantasy Fair was in conjunction with a stage play Donna Barr was doing for "Desert Peach", and as part of an Indiana Jones thing.

People use Dragoncon as an excuse to get their Nazi on? Glad I quit going.