ABSTRACT
On the evening of 17 June 2015, Dylann Roof summarily executed nine people in the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in the hope of instigating a Race war. What is also present is that Dylann Roof’s activities fit firmly in the tradition of “coming of age” and travelogue narratives. Dylan Roof partook in a seven-month road trip visiting heritage and memorial sites in two States, over hundreds of miles, and multiple visits. Those narratives position Roof and his activities into the tourism literature, and by doing so, proffer an indicting ideological critique on: this literature, tourism as a concept in society and the myths of sanctity, salvageability and socialisation. Can we truly engage in socialising tourism without an organised program on truth, reconciliation and restitution that interrogates the reality that tourism does not have safeguards for less harmful, more unjust use? What is truth when a society manufactures “systematic mendacity” that makes State and State-sanctioned actions so easy? Beyond the actions of the State in the repression of society, the State also sanctions the actions of vigilantes and organised militias to commit neoliberal injustices through seemingly benign performances of tourism.
