VICE Does America (2016) s01e06 Episode Script

1 [Knock on door.]
Hello? - Hey.
- How's it going? - Hey.
- How's it going, man? We're filming a TV show, like, road trip across America right now.
And we saw your place, and, you know, right now the Confederate flag's a big issue, about freedom of speech right now.
And we were wondering if you'd be down to chat about it, - like a quick interview? - Man: Uh Wilbert: I actually love your T-shirt, by the way.
Yeah, man.
I'm a big Black Flag fan, too.
- Probably not.
- Yeah? - I mean, that's cool, man.
- All right, man.
Thank you.
All right, have a good day.
Actually had kind of dope tattoos.
Yeah.
He had an S He had an S.
S.
tattoo, though.
Yeah.
Yeah, I saw that one, yeah.
Skull and Skull and bones.
Hey, so But he was nice, though.
- Yeah, he was friendly.
- Totally nice skinhead.
My name's Abdullah.
I work at Vice as a writer and reporter.
- Aah! - I'm traveling from L.
A.
to D.
C.
with my two co-workers Wilbert and Martina.
As the country gears up for the most polarized election in our lifetime, we're zigzagging across America, meeting people [Screams.]
Abdullah: and exploring the issues they care about until we reach our ultimate destination - Hey.
- the White House.
[Cheers and applause.]
Abdullah: We've made it halfway across this great land in this not-so-great RV, and so far, it's holding up.
A couple pieces fell off, a little engine trouble, a little tire trouble, but it's still in one piece.
On our way through Louisiana, we heard about a fishing community of mostly Native Americans whose wetlands are being devastated by the effects of oil drilling in the area.
We wanted to see the unintended consequences of big business and explore this forgotten corner of America that's literally disappearing into the ocean.
We drove all the way south, and now we're in Pointe-Aux-Chenes, Louisiana.
We're here to hang out with a couple of Choctaw natives Donald and Theresa.
And then later tonight, Donald is gonna take us out on a shrimp boat and show us how to shrimp.
"Shramp.
" That's like generations of shrimp.
So, how many shrimp are in there? Donald: That's 40 pound.
40 pounds of shrimp? - Yeah.
- God.
Donald: Well, shrimp, crab, and oysters, whatever's in season.
Like, this right here is the season for shrimp now, so I've got shrimp.
Wilbert: How long does it take to catch 40 pounds of shrimp? Don't take that long.
Is there just, like, a lot of Choctaw around here? Is there a reservation somewhere? Are you guys also in the shrimp game or Verdin: Yeah.
What else do you do? Yeah, there's a lot of oil down here, too, huh? - Yeah.
- I'm sure it's great for the economy, but then it comes back and screws you - sometimes, too, like a spill.
- - Yeah.
- Dardar: This is the Pointe-Aux-Chenes Native American community.
Our land is mostly family property from the ancestors.
This is what I tell everybody.
Whenever they ask me, "Oh, where are you from?" I say, "I'm from the end of the world," because once you get to my community, you can't go any further unless you go by boat.
I would say 95% of our community are fishermen.
How do the Choctaw people traditionally use these wetlands to survive? They were fishermen and trappers, and people used to live all along this bayou.
And it used to be full of trees.
The land is all gone.
Or it's all open water like this.
Abdullah: Since the 1930s, oil companies have been dredging canals through the Gulf's wetlands, creating paths for drilling equipment.
The resulting erosion has crumbled shorelines and turned dense marshlands into open water at a rate of 25 square miles per year.
So, they just dug this in right here? Dardar: They dug this to get to to put a rig.
And so we're sinking.
In 50 years, this will not be here anymore.
Oh, my God, yeah.
So this was just dry land.
This place is really sinking underwater.
Oh, my God, there's, like, signs, telephone poles just - Oh, my God.
- This was a neighborhood.
Why do people even stay here? Oh, look at these horses.
Wilbert: Are those wild horses? Yeah.
Are those wild horses? - Yeah.
- Dude, this is so cool.
Martina: This is beautiful.
So, Donald, where exactly are we headed? Okay, sounds good.
Martina: The landscape is very beautiful, but it is a bittersweet feeling.
The companies and money are very important in this country.
It's hard to understand.
It's all money, and that's what's important.
Donald: Hey, bro.
Abdullah: Right now we're in the bayou.
We're about to go shrimping on this shrimp boat.
Ooh, it is buggy! Oh, my God! - It's not that bad tonight.
- Yeah.
Ow! Not that bad tonight? - No.
- Whoa.
So, Basil, can you tell us a little bit about what we're looking at? - Shrimps.
- Shrimps mostly.
- They're slippery.
- Ah! Wilbert: I don't want to hurt him.
Did you say to grab the crabs from the back? - Yeah, from the back, yeah.
- Am I alone on this? Martina: I don't want to grab a crab.
- - 'Cause I found that No, I can't.
- - Because I don't want to touch it.
Abdullah: Oh, look, they they all they're all together.
You got them in one go.
Dump them.
Oh, shit.
He's got the trifecta.
Oh, my God, Martina, you have to grab a crab.
Throw it Throw it out.
Throw it out.
There you go.
So, Basil, we've been traveling across the country, and we've seen all kinds of different subcultures in America.
This is perhaps the most unique.
What do you think makes it so different? Just easy living, huh? - Yeah.
- Be a shame to see it suddenly disappear.
But it's happening, I guess.
Wilbert: There's a a quietness and a stillness and a peacefulness that's here that you don't find in many other places in America.
As I've traveled across the country, I see the same shit again and again.
But we come here to this place, and this is a different place.
This is a way of life and a unique thing in this country that will be lost for oil.
I've seen more beautiful things than I think I ever have.
I mean, I [bleep.]
love America, but the ugliness that we've seen, too, and the complete disregard for its own citizens is mind-boggling.
So, in one sense, I hate America, but in another, I love America.
It's a yin and a yang, and it makes you feel just peculiar and strange.
Abdullah: Holy [bleep.]
, it's hot in here.
Are you freaked out seeing all these Confederate flags, man? - I am a little.
- I mean, it's like Wilbert: I grew up in Ohio, where people people are into that, so I'm used to seeing it and, like, the weird juxtaposition of people like, white dudes who have confederate flags and listen to rap music and love, like, black culture and stuff.
It's one of those weird American things, like sometimes where you might find somebody that you really can get along with pretty well, but they have, like, this strange attachment to this really skewed idea of what the South was, that, in in a lot of instances, is very representative of everything that you're against.
We're in Jacksonville, Alabama, and we're about to go to a Civil War re-enactment.
As soon as we climb over that hill, it's the 1860s.
I think it's basically just gonna be a costume party essentially.
I don't think the war aspect is that much of the equation.
Right.
Welcome.
This is late 1864 that you're fixing to step into, a great time of strife in our country, brother against brother, father against son.
Each man must decide and choose which side he supports.
Do you support the Union, or do you support the Confederacy and the Southern states? I support the Union.
Come aboard.
- How you doing? - Andy Hartley.
I'll support the Confederacy.
Welcome.
I don't know what to do.
What do you recommend? I obviously recommend the Union.
Okay, I'll go with them.
Attention, company.
Shoulder arms.
Right face.
Forward, march.
One, one, two, one, one Sorry.
I'm not quite as formal as our counterpart.
I have a fairly relaxed command style, you'll find out.
All right, and with that, let's go.
Shoulder arms.
Forward, march.
What's up, man? About to get some hot-ass clothes.
This is gonna be terrible.
Oh, my God.
You look very trendy.
- Oh, yeah? - Yeah.
- I got inside of Beacon's Closet.
- Yeah.
Do you ever get, like, a new piece, you're like, "Man, I can't wait to come come through and " Hartley: Oh, it's amazing.
If you ever want to see a bunch of middle-aged heterosexual dudes - freaking out over fabric - Right.
come to a re-enactment 'cause they'll be like, "Oh, my God, oh, my God, have you seen my new satinet?" And you're I mean, it's really funny.
- That's cool.
I can relate to that.
- Yeah.
It's It's It's fun.
So, what exactly are we fighting for? I should know if I'm gonna be in it, I guess.
We will no longer live under Northern tyranny.
What specifically that Lincoln has done that you disagree with so far? He has taken the rights from the states.
A federal government that is too strong and oversteps its boundary will take away the rights of its citizens, the rights of prosperity, the rights of property, the right to make their own decisions of how they want to live.
The right to wear woolen clothing on a 90-degree day.
Exactly.
[Harmonica music playing.]
Abdullah: All right, they're, like, playing some jams over there.
Myers: Got your hard tack? Oh, hard tack.
- There you go.
- Yeah.
Whoa.
They actually ate this, huh? You guys have, like, hummus or Um, so, there's two cocks, - half cock and full cock? - Half cock and full cock.
You ever heard the phrase "someone going off half-cocked"? Yeah, yeah.
So, it's kind of like a safety? - It is the safety.
- Okay.
I just thought it was, like, something about, like, genitalia or something.
I didn't know it was about guns.
That's cool.
For this particular battle, we are basically ravaging Alabama.
It's the end of the war, and we will engage whatever local Confederate forces may be here and crush them and move on.
By this stage in the war, the Army's become radicalized, and even the people at the beginning of the war who supported slavery in the Federal Army at this point are mostly ardent anti-slavery people.
Biggest complaints about the North anyone? You guys got something to fight for, right? It's probably the fact that they're invading us.
They should stay out.
It's our right to secede.
The fighting was not for slavery at all.
Less than 5% of the people down in the South owned slaves.
- Yeah.
- To be a plantation owner, you'd have to own more than 20 slaves, but, really, most of us probably didn't own maybe just one, maybe two.
And I would probably say some of them did beat them really bad, but most of the time, they really wouldn't beat them that bad.
- Entire company - Oh.
- Well, we got to get in line.
- fall in! All right, fall back in.
Left face.
Forward, march.
Myers: Countermarch by files.
Right, march.
Man: Give me a line right here! Myers: Fire at will! The South shall rise again! Go! [Men screaming.]
It's 1861.
- 4.
- It's 1864 [Men screaming.]
and the Confederates have had enough of Northern tyranny! [Men yelling.]
La-la-la-la-la-la-la.
Oh.
We don't do that.
Die, you Federals! - Let's crush them, boys! - Advance! So, so far, the Confederates are looking pretty good.
We're coming through hard.
We've definitely got a better battle cry, but I have a sinking feeling that the Union's gonna win this one.
Y'all fight these guys.
Fire at will! It feels really real, the way everybody kind of takes it seriously.
I don't know.
I love it.
Hang on.
Let me get this shot in.
Oh, I I got to be close up.
Go in the barn and clean out these rats! Army! 6th Kentucky! Hey, I don't know what's going on, man.
They just ran inside of here.
I feel like I'm in a game of "Call of Duty.
" I'm gonna see what's popping.
The majority of people I've met are really cool.
I did meet one guy who insisted that I join the Confederacy because I was black and the Union wasn't integrated.
Of course, he neglected to mention that the Confederacy was, you know, trying to continue slavery.
I feel like the Confederates are more like - Excited? - excited.
I think maybe what our job should be is to try to turn up the excitement on our side.
- Yeah.
- We We need - to get some "yippa yippa.
" - I want to - I I want to yell - Yeah, yeah.
because they are, "Myah! Myah! Myah! Myah! Myah!" - and we are like - Yeah, you should yell.
[Hartley yells indistinctly.]
Yippa yippa! Whoo-hoo! You yellow-belled, country-pig-screwing, Kentucky Fried Chicken-eating, ain't-never-taken-a-bath, stinking Southerners! We're coming for y'all! Abdullah, I'm gonna wear your nut sack like a necklace! Say hello to my little friend! Aah! My own brother! - Cease fire! - Cease fire! We have women in the camp, sir.
- Women do not belong in combat.
- I understand your reason, sir.
We will yield.
We'll gather our wounded and yield.
They have the camp.
They have the women.
Pick up any wounded.
Abdullah, you were fighting for the wrong side, brother.
I should have never left the North.
You should have never left.
What were you thinking? - They were always gonna lose.
- This man is young.
I just wanted to legalize weed in the state of Alabama.
Never gonna happen, boy.
See? We can make peace.
It took two brown dudes to end the Civil War, you know, peacefully.
It's all love, man.
Oh.
- What's the black stuff? - Yeah.
- So, that is like an initiation.
- Oh, okay.
It's like your first all the first-timers.
So, why would you want to go against actual history and be No.
There were black regiments.
- Right.
- Right.
But the North segregated, - and the South was integrated - Well, I mean, nothing - from day one.
- nothing here nothing here is perfect.
I seen her drinking a Coca-Cola.
- Okay.
- I seen people checking their cellphones.
- Okay.
- You gonna come at me and talk to me about this? It's total nonsense, all right? We're all playing make-believe, so don't - so don't - We're all having fun here.
No, yeah, but you singled me out for my race, and you tried to talk to me about it in a way to prove a point, - but I think it's ridiculous.
- Okay.
And, you know, obviously there were black regiments, - and and the South - In the South, too.
was fighting for Well, the South was fighting for fighting to preserve slavery.
- - Well, I'll just say one thing.
We're not supposed to get political, but when you talk when you s when you say something like, "A slave did this" slaves don't have a choice, right? They don't have the ability to do what they want to do.
There are actual accounts that I looked up before I came here of slaves talking about fighting for the Confederacy and them being forced to do it.
So, when So, it may be historically true that there were slaves that fought for the Confederacy, but when you say, "A slave this did this " - No.
- They have no ch - They Okay.
- Cut it off.
Cut it off.
Myers: We're not We're not doing that.
- We're not about that.
- He br He He brought it up.
- Well, I'm stopping him.
- That was his fault.
- I'm stopping him.
- Yeah, it was.
- He came to me multiple times.
- We're stopping him.
- We're stopping him.
- I apologize.
Four or five times.
Woman: Anybody want to go for a pony ride? Wilbert: I don't really want to be here anymore, - honestly.
I really don't.
- Man: Yeah.
I know what you mean.
And you can film me saying that.
I don't I don't if I want to be here anymore.
- I don't know if I want to sleep here.
- Mm-hmm.
- So - Yeah.
You know, that's something Y'all are the producer.
You run the show.
- You let me know what's up, but I'm - Let's - This isn't fun.
- You don't have to stay at all.
- Mm-hmm.
- You don't have to.
I think that there's a This is something important.
I hope they don't cut this out of the edit.
- Mm-hmm.
- I'm glad that it was caught on-camera because it is Like, this is an extreme situation, but this is the kind of shit that black people, especially in my position, where you're always the only black person, like, at Vice or in college or whatever this is what you experience.
You experience people saying shit that's just off the [bleep.]
wall, with an agenda or a perspective that they're pushing onto you that you know not to be true.
So, in a sense, it's almost good that it happened 'cause then people can see it and be like, "Damn.
What the [bleep.]
?" You know? Like, why would you come and say that to me and then be like, "Yo, you need to join the the Confedera " Like, [bleep.]
you.
No, I - - There's a lots of different - lots of different people, absolutely.
- - I appreciate that.
- where there are the extremely people - to the event - Mm-hmm.
but far, the majority is not that way.
I appreciate that.
It's just, like, I I feel like I came here with a really open mind and, like, tried to be a part of it and join in and connect with everybody, and I was singled out by someone who was trying to press upon me a very specific point that is obscuring the truth.
Yeah, there were slaves who fought for the Confederacy, but they were literally slaves.
Absolutely.
Slavery is is not you know, that's a non-discussable issue.
- Right.
- It's absolutely wrong.
But one thing and, you know, take it with a grain of salt is is is, a lot of what went on down here is, they became they were family members.
But it's the same way if you look at prison.
Like, my brother was a prison guard for a long time, and if a prison guard has consensual relationships or does something weird with a prisoner, no matter what, it's considered rape because one person has power over the other.
- Absolutely.
- That's how we look at it.
So, they may have been families, but they're trapped in a mind state of slavery.
I am extremely sorry, and I apologize for him for that.
And that is not tolerated, period.
I know You know, I met a lot of nice people today, so I appreciate it, man.
Thank you.
You're You're more than welcome.
All right.
Wilbert: Most black people wouldn't even step foot in a Civil War re-enactment.
It's a place where you automatically know you're gonna have a bunch of crazy white people making up shit that didn't happen.
They're trying to push forth this concept that we actually liked to be slaves.
And this happened twice in this trip across America, older white men trying to tell me how great slavery was.
When Cliven Bundy, that crazy mother[bleep.]
in Nevada, says, "Black folks was better off when they was slaves," or when this guy says, "Black folks loved slavery so much, they fought for the Confederacy," they're trying to erase history and create a new one.
And this goes to the core of what the battle is in this country.
These people want to go back to a past, and they're deluding themselves on what that past was about.
They hold on to this idea of heritage and way of life, the Confederacy and remembering it, honoring it.
But that way of life was built on the bones and the blood of black bodies.
This is the journey Africans had to take to freedom.
Man: And they put you in the water and poured you out of the water to sell you.
They took you in the water and pour you out the water to be free.
I'm about to meet a new Wilbert.
How are we getting to D.
C.
by the way? You'll see.