Although it hasn’t been released to the general public, the US State Department is busy showing its propaganda* film (‘Welcome to Shelbyville’) on how the citizens of Shelbyville, TN have come to supposedly accept and embrace the Somalis who were lured to the town by jobs at a nearby Tyson’s chicken plant.  

The problems with Somalis in Shelbyville was extensively covered in articles in the Times-Gazette beginning in 2007.   We covered the issue as well (use our search function for ‘Somalis Shelbyville’ for at least a dozen posts on the controversy).

Here is how the AP now enthuses over the film that is clearly meant to show immigrants as warm and fuzzy while Tennesseans (some depicted as trailer park rednecks) hearts and minds are magically transformed as they come to know their new neighbors:

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A new documentary that will be broadcast nationwide in the spring follows the reception of a group of Somali immigrants in Shelbyville – a small town about an hour south of Nashville best known as the home of the Tennessee Walking Horse.

The film chronicles the difficulties some longtime residents have in accepting the changes that immigration is bringing to their community, as well as the evolution of some residents’ attitudes as they get to know the Somalis through a series of shared meals and dialogues.

“Welcome to Shelbyville” saw its U.S. debut this week at a screening in Shelbyville for community leaders. One of those present was Bedford County Mayor Eugene Ray.

Ray is seen at the beginning of the film complaining that Somali immigrants, unlike Hispanics, are “not nice” and “not easy to deal with.”

For example, “When they go to a store, they feel like they can negotiate,” he says. Haggling over prices is commonplace in Somalia.

But toward the end of the film he seems to be on better terms with the Somalis, many of whom are refugees who settled in Shelbyville to work at a chicken processing plant. In one of the final scenes, Ray is seated at a banquet table with several Somali residents, including the imam of a local mosque, Mohammed Ali.

No surprise, the US State Department loves the film and is showing it around Africa.  No sense waiting until the film is out in the US.    They want to make sure Africans want to continue to come and be part of the cheap legal labor force the State Department supplies to the likes of the meatpackers!   The message that we are all one big happy world is just the cover and the lie.

Film director and producer Kim Snyder, who attended the screening and participated in a panel discussion afterward, said the film was selected by the U.S. State Department to be shown abroad as part of its American Documentary Showcase.

Dear Kim, please tell me why the Far Left is busy helping giant corporations get cheap immigrant labor?  I cannot wrap my head around that.  What is in it for you?  Did big companies pay for this film?

Here is what I said about the far Leftwing film project when I first heard about it in November of 2008 and it sure looks like my prediction has come true:

Shelbyville BeWare BeCause, they are using your town! They will gloss over the tensions and problems of the Tyson’s African employees and then show what great work the TIRRC and the Somali Community Center are doing to bring you all together in harmonious unity. This is a politically motivated campaign. Your film, your town, will then be used to shame other towns into silence.

To be sure, we will have more on this film in future posts because some local residents are charging that the film distorts the facts and no where will the media report that politically incorrect information.

For new readers:  This post I wrote in September 2008 about the 100,000 (by now!) Somalis the US State Department has admitted to the US since 1983 is daily still one of our top most visited posts.

* This is as good a time as any to mention Adolph Hitler’s definition of propaganda and how and why the BIG LIE works.

All this was inspired by the principle–which is quite true within itself–that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.  [Emphasis mine]

More on the PR campaign on the film, here.