The Aesthetics of Fascism | Artist Talk by Brooks Turner

With the Teamsters Strike of 1934 and the success of the Farmer-Labor Party, Minnesota established itself in the 1930s as a U.S. center for progressive thinking and action across the political spectrum. At a distance, the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 1938 might appear as a simple synecdoche of national conversations around the war in Europe, the refugee crisis, economic depression, and labor rights. But, just beneath the surface, a tangled web of Fascist activity connected American Nazis to prominent businessmen, lawyers, and government officials. Over the last two years, Brooks Turner has traced these connections through documents archived in the Minnesota Historical Society, existing scholarship, and aesthetic analysis, focusing in particular on the Silver Legion of America, a national Fascist organization that found considerable support in Minnesota. Through drawing and collage, Turner has reassembled an aesthetic history of Fascism in Minnesota, the traces of which can still be seen throughout the Twin Cities and beyond.
This talk was recorded on October 28, 2020 with Weisman Art Museum Target Studio artist-in-residence Brooks Turner in conjunction with his exhibition Legends and Myths of Ancient Minnesota. Learn more: z.umn.edu/Legen...
Your support makes free online programs like this possible. Keep WAM's digital initiatives strong.
Make a gift today: z.umn.edu/Digit...

[@Yothirjgdit9595]

Racism and fascism are not the same thing, one thing they have in common though is that the 2 terms get thrown around to much.

[@juhlsghouls]

Racism is a tool used by fascism to attain power through nationalism and a common enemy

[@Johnb.78]

@@juhlsghouls racism is a human condition. It has always been here.

[@FaiaHalo]

@@Johnb.78 that literally doesn't invalidate Julia Fox's argument at all. OP is the one who has a false argument.

[@jeudieleslavavelasquez8410]

@@juhlsghouls That's correct.
There's fascism without racism (Franco's Spain, if you were catholic race didn't mattered, and Mussolini's Italy before the feat. Germany) and racism without fascism (Nowadays Japan is an ethnostate and it's democratic, just like Korea)
Still, it's undeniable the fact that racism is a tool used by some fascists: Showa Fascism anyone?

[@Yothirjgdit9595]

@Jose Martinez DeJesus race isn't a social construct, but it is more of a spectrum, rather than what it was viewed as originally.

[@syndicalistball6360]

Fascism does not automatically equal racism. The Brazilian Integralists had black men and women in their ranks who were treated the same as their white and Hispanic brethren. Mussolini upon his successful conquest of Ethiopia freed the native African slaves who were being held by wealthy African landowners. Balbo himself met with Native American leaders and denounced the racial inequality of blacks in the U.S.