T. Johnson - Welcome to Braggsville

— Miss, please, miss—

— I am Candice Marianne Chelsea. My identification number is 20A30185. My date of birth is July third, 1992. I’m a sophomore. At UC Berkeley. I’m majoring in anthropology, with a minor in public health. I am—

— Young miss, once again, you are not being interrogated—

— I’m… I’m Candice Chelsea, a sophomore at Berkeley. My ID number is 20A30185. I’m an anthropology major minoring in public health—

— Young lady, please—

— I’m Candice Marianne Chelsea. My identification number is 20A30185. I’m a sophomore. At UC Berkeley—

— Young miss, please. I’m only recording this to aid the old noggin. It’ll be the same when I meet with the other two. This is informal, miss. Tell me a little about yourself. That always helps to relax. Just talk about what you know.

[long pause]

We were curious about how people would react. There’s Epcot Center or Williamsburg, Virginia, but no one reenacts the Tet Offensive or dresses like Kim Phuc. So why the Civil War? Like Charlie says, let’s call a spade a spade. You don’t think it’s weird to reenact an ancient war?

Yes. Sir. My name is Charles Roger Cole, born January fifteenth, 1994, Sir. I am originally from New York, but was raised in Chicago, specifically Chicago-Bronzeville. I currently reside at 45A Addison Way in Berkeley, California. I’m a sophomore at UC Berkeley. My major is business administration and my minor is accounting. My friends’ names are Candice Chelsea, Daron Davenport, and Louis Chang, the latter now deceased. I understand, Sir, that this statement is voluntary and I am not being charged with a crime, Sir.

You can’t be serious. [pause] I’m D’aron Little May Davenport and I reside about five miles up the way at Gearheart Lane, about four and a half miles north of Lou Davis’s. I was born November thirtieth, 1992, in Braggsville, Georgia. You drove Ma to County ’cause Pa was stationed in Germany.

How about telling me what all you can about this morning’s incident?

We planned it a month or two ago, but everything changed when the troops arrived.

It wasn’t supposed to go like this. Sir.

This wasn’t what I reckoned on.

How ’bout that. So you planned this out in advance?

Yes.

Yes. Sir.

Kinda sorta. I didn’t think on it none a long time.

How ’bout that. Call that a plan, do you? Whose idea was it?

I don’t remember. We were all curious.

I don’t remember? Everyone was curious, Sir.

They was all curious about the reenactment. I shouldna said nothing. They just got curiouser and curiouser.

How ’bout that. Curious? That’s curious. What was your plan?

It was supposed to be a performative intervention. When Daron told us about the reenactment, what else could we do? At first, even Charlie thought it was a good idea. The first plan was that three of us would dress as slaves. One would be the master, cracking a whip and issuing random absurd orders. Whatever they used to do. We hoped there would be enough rocks or sticks to form a pile that the slaves could move back and forth. You know, like work. While this was happening, we would use a hidden camera to record the reenactors’ reactions and ask a few questions about the war, local history, and the reenactments.

The action is known as a performative intervention, Sir. According to the initial plan, I was supposed to dress like a slave. Then Louis said that would be too obvious, and therefore too easy, Sir.

I figured we would just dress like slaves, horse around a bit, and videotape it. I didn’t think anything could go wrong at home. Not like this.

Mr. Chicago, you’re young for a sophomore. About two years younger than the others, it looks.

I graduated early.

That’s right. You went to one of them fancy stay-away schools. So you’re a smart one?

No. I’ve mastered adaptive testing, which transforms the examination into an assessment of strategy more than knowledge.

[long pause]

[muffled]

No, Sir. I’m good at taking tests, Sir.

Gotta be a little smart for that, don’t you? Don’t you?

Yes, Sir. I guess you do, Sir.

But it never occurred to a smart fellow like you that this was a bad idea?

Well, Sir, I did reverse my earlier decision, Sir.

But you let the young lady go off on her own with the Chinese boy.

No, Sir, well, yes, Sir. I didn’t want her to, though, Sir. He’s… was… Malaysian, though, Sir… In case you need that for the records, Sir.

Says here your major is business administration and accounting. You topping that sundae with criminal justice?

Understood, Sir.

As I was readying to say, a big, strong fellow like you couldn’t stop them? So you sent that little girl and poor boy off to do this alone? Was that your original plan, Chicago? Do you hate the South?

No, Sir. I’m quite unfamiliar with the South, Sir, except for the last twenty-four hours. And what I read in that brochure. But there’s no stopping Candice once her mind is set.

So it’s the lady’s fault, now? You deserted her, and it’s her fault. That’s how you do things where you’re from?

[Pause] No, Sir.

So it’s not her fault?

No, Sir. I do not hold Candice accountable, Sir.

So, college boy, you want to explain how this performance protest procedure is supposed to work?

Performative intervention, Sir?

[muffled]

Today’s change agents perform instead of picket, Sir, though a picket line is itself a performance, as any scholar will tell you. Some change agents play the role of pickets, others scabs, others managers, et cetera. These various roles are all enactments of concretized ideologies. Judith Butler, for example, says gender is a performance, Sir.

But how is it supposed to work? What’s supposed to happen afterwards?

I don’t know, Sir.

Miss, where is that hidden camera you mentioned?

We forgot it.

Where?

At Daron’s house.

You don’t mind me looking none at it, do you, miss?

We didn’t bring it. We forgot it at the Davenports’ house.

All the same, you don’t mind me looking, do you now, miss?

I guess not.

Your phone, too.

Okay. I guess.

D, why did you back out?

I wasn’t going to disobey my father. You know how he gets.

Guess he hasn’t gotten it enough lately. So if it wasn’t for your father acting as the voice of God-given reason, you’da been out there, too? Was you scheming to string yourself up like the other one?

Hadn’t reckoned to, Sheriff.

D, what I still cannot understand is how this performative intervention is supposed to work.

Me neither, Sheriff.

So you went out there to California and got your… Never mind. You don’t know nothing about it, do you?

Not really, Sheriff. I never really got a good sight on it.

How about y’allses other plans? You said first — no, initial — plans. Tell me about the others.

The second plan was more provocative. It was Louis’s idea to use Charlie as the master. Louis said we should use the Veil of Ignorance, which meant lynching a white person, ideally a white female. Charlie was like, It’s highly possible that might provoke gunfire, and most people… How’d he say?… would be caught in a double-bind because they’re ignorant about the Veil of Ignorance, so it wouldn’t work. Charlie was like, It is what it is, they should call a spade a spade.

Well, Sir, Louis wanted to fabricate replicas of the discipline instruments he’d read about in Beloved, such as the spiked punishment collar. Louis wanted me to be the master because the irony would deepen the experience, but I couldn’t do that either, Sir. I backed out at the last minute.