Hate Thy Neighbor (TV Show Review)
Noelle Thrasher shares her thoughts on a new comedic series dubbed “Hate Thy Neighbor,” which explores racism.
March 1, 2017
Vice’s new documentary series follows comedian Jamali Maddix on his world wide excursion to learn more about the complexities, flaws, and ignorance of racism. Maddix is an English writer and comedian whose racial background (British-Italian mother and a Jamaican father) serves as an interesting talking point for many of the supremacists he interviews. Maddix exposes the ignorance behind racist ideologies and viewpoints interlaid with his comedy show which serves as his commentary on the interview.
The first of the series follows Maddix interviewing a Pennsylvania family who align themselves with the neo-nazi movement. He watches them spew backwards rhetoric about their own pastor who has two black daughters, eats a meal with them as they show him their alt-right memorabilia, and speaks with Daniel Burnside (the leader of the National Socialist Movement for the state of Pennsylvania). He watches a Klan meeting from across the street as he is told that it wouldn’t be best for him to get closer, while sending in his Jewish camera crew in unknowing to the neo-nazis Klan members. The first episode will surely make you want to watch the following ones where he speaks with NY black separatists, a Ukrainian far-right militant group, an anti-assimilation group in Israel, and Swedish Nordic Youth.
It is needed to have this type of representation exposing this malicious, prevalent, and ignorant racism rampant not only in the US, but worldwide. Maddix’s comedic relief during heavy topics uses comedy purposefully, to expose the irrational behavior of racist rhetoric and beliefs. Hate Thy Neighbor is a perfect response for the current political and social climate of the US.
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