Memeing ‘moonlight and magnolias’: the coding and cloaking of cyber racism

Abstract

Across the Web there exists a network of far-right propagandists who portray the ‘Old American South’ as a region ensconced in a romanticised Antebellum past, with imagery promoting the days when cotton was king, and a land of faithful slaves, southern belles, cavalier gentleman, and palatial plantations draped in moonlight and Spanish moss, an illusion colloquially referred to as ‘Moonlight and Magnolias’. This chapter examines how far-right propagandists have leveraged meme culture, historical racist caricatures, and contemporary aesthetics to promote white supremacist ideologies under the guise of heritage preservation. While image-based research often prioritises overt extremism, online racism in its implicit forms poses an equally significant threat, often circumventing platform restrictions, and spreading across networks. The pervasiveness of this coded and cloaked racism, in both the fringe and the mainstream, amplifies its severity, demanding serious consideration as a widespread societal threat. By analysing historical, technological, and socio-political factors, this chapter demonstrates how Confederate symbolism and idealised narratives about the ‘Old South’ are employed to disguise racist content across various social media platforms. The persistence and adaption of these racist narratives underscore the need for vigilance in critically examining seemingly innocuous cultural symbols and online content, as they frequently serve as vehicles for more insidious ideologies.

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ORCID for Ashton Kingdon: orcid.org/0000-0002-0103-7361

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