It’s fitting that Colin and Tim talked on the anniversary of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. That’s because Tim’s recent documentary Monumental Crossroads (link below) examines the debate over Confederate memorials and the meaning of the Civil War in the South.

Taking his camera to locations in Louisiana, Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama, Tim’s film interviews white and black people to understand their feelings about some of the most divisive symbols in the American landscape. Monumental Crossroads shows us a cross-section of the South, from a black artists and politicians to white members of Confederate groups as well as an African American “Confederate” in Asheville and Tennessee Civil War interpreters.

Tim, a native of the Netherlands, makes clear that no society is free of racism (as in the case of the Netherlands’ “Black Pete”), though some are better than others at confronting their troubled past. Colin and Tim discuss the difficulties surrounding racial healing amid a summer that has shown how deadly and divisive race continues to be.

Listen here: https://americanrambler.libsyn.com/episode-184-tim-van-der-hoff

You can watch Monumental Crossroads here: