WTF - the KKK?

WTF - the KKK?

Look, I wasn't born yesterday.  I'm not naive enough to think that we no longer house hate groups in our neighborhoods and cities.  There are hot and cold running Haters - homophobes, neo-nazis, gang bangers and other various sick bastards everywhere.

But the KKK?  I thought it was pretty much limited to some small groups of the criminally insane parking their over-compensating big trucks and meeting in basements.  Until recently.  They didn't just fade away - they are still out there, and recruiting openly - even on the Internet.  Or you can stop by their HQ in Houston. God Almighty, what the fuck is going on?!

You could have one in your town.  I learned there are at least three official KKK groups right here in Pennsylvania.  How did I learn this?  Well, there was a recent demonstration in Paris, Texas (a real proud heritage there for the Haters Hall of Fame) and the local KKK jags actually said they showed up without their robes and hoods because that seemed to inflame the rival protestors too much.  Ya think?  Are you fucking kidding me here?  I was so shocked, I did a little research, and there they were.  

Let's remind ourselves of something.  The KKK and other hate groups don't just target African Americans and the GLBT community.  They target Jews, Catholics (plus there are the Fuckwad "Catholic" Hate groups who think the Inquisition was just a warm-up and they target other RCs), union organizers, Asians, Italians - you name it.  In fact, the largest lynching ever in this country was of a group of Italian Americans.

And here's another news flash - I'm willing to bet that not one of you reading this blog has pure enough bloodlines to satisfy these pricks.  So we're all potential targets of this unstable rage.  I don't care if you can trace your heritage back to the goddamn Mayflower - you or your kids could become the next victim. Why?  Because you're not "American" or a true Patriot unless you agree with these barbarians.  Hell, most of you probably have way too much hair, for starters.

No wonder the Harry Potter movies are breaking all kinds of records - it's classic  Hate Group stuff.  Good v. Evil.  As so often happens in life, Evil does win some of the battles, but in the end Good (aided by a big dose of Love, albeit unrequited) wins the war.

One real consequence of these grotesque nests of vipers is that they breed hate by their existence alone. The first draft of this blog was so vitriolic that I had to delete it completely.  Fear, Anger, Hate.  The triumvirate of violence.  

Basically, the spiritual side of me advises that love, prayer and faith are the only answers.  The more worldly side says we ought to be taking out these mofos with some nice, clean headshots.  The lawyer in me says that their speech is currently protected by the First Amendment and that the answer is to work harder on Hate Crimes Legislation that will limit those rights and bring the offenders into the Justice System.  The mother in me says - fuck that - I need to find these scumbags, bring the big hurt, and remove them as a potential threat to my peace-loving and tolerant children, who have friends of all creeds, races, and sexual preferences.  

Sorry for such a heavy topic for a summer Friday, but shit, if We, The People who actually read and recognize fact - and have functioning brains - don't start paying attention, who will?

***

On a lighter note, coming tomorrow on TLC:

Deirdre Shaw Gibson, author of "Love or Something Like It"

Comments

[SisterZip]

It all takes time. Like the Civil Rights movement, it has taken decades for things to get better...not perfect, just a bit better.

Most states are trying to limit what some of these groups can do. But I have a feeling it will be thrown out by the Supremes. I'd much rather hear them flapping their gums and having them out on the streets doing their thing than have them hide in back rooms with bombs & AK47s.

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

[Karen in Ohio]

Brava, Kathy.

What she said.

[L.L. Bartlett]

I'm constantly amazed (and offended) by so-called Christians parading their hatred of certain groups and thumping their bibles as justification. The other day a bunch of suited Christian men (they had banners) stood on the side of a busy thoroughfare in my town with signs telling people to HONK IF YOU BELIEVE MARRIAGE SHOULD BE ONLY BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN. Needless to say, there were jerks hoking their brains out--while these suited guys were cheering and barely concealing their hard-ons. These weren't Old White Men, most of them looked like they were in their early 20s.

I'm pretty sure Jesus would have been disgusted by the display.

[Lisa Daily]

Thanks for bringing this to light, Kathy.

Imagine all the good these people could do if they channeled that passion and energy into fixing the health care system or feeding the poor instead.

Maybe we need a brigade of preschool teachers to redirect their behavior.

Lisa

[J.D. Rhoades]

Hear, hear. We had a KKK march about a dozen years ago in my little town in North Carolina. The town council tried to block it, but the group had all their papers in order, so there wasn't a lot they could do, although they did deny the Klan their request to use loudspeakers. There was some talk about counter-protests (I was going to take my guitar up their and play blues songs at them) but in the end, pretty much everybody stayed home and they had their sad and tiny little "rally" all by themselves.

Lisa: most of them ARE the poor. They've just been duped into thinking that's the fault of the blacks and the Jews and the Mexicans and the hippies, etc etc etc.

[William Simon]

Long ago and far away, I was driving through lower MIssissippi. Me being me, I got thoroughly and completely lost in what was a relatively small town. After getting directions back to the Interstate, I came around a corner.... and ended up in a full blown Klan march. Burning crosses, hoods and sheets, the whole thing. I whipped the car over to the curb and sat VERY quietly, thanking God Above I had recently had a haircut, was wearing a suit and tie, and driving a conservative car. It went on for what seemed forever, actually maybe three minutes, and as soon as I could I put the car in gear and, as the cliche goes, got the FUCK out of there. (Sorry, ladies, sometimes that's the only word that works.)

Yes, they're still around. Yes, they're here in Texas. Yes, they're here in Houston. And Galveston. And Bryan. And Beaumont. And Corpus Christi. They're also in Illinois, Ohio, Nebraska, Wyoming. Anywhere you have people, you have different belief groups, whether we like them or not.

Got to go with Sister Zip, though. I'd rather hear them saying what they say than plotting and planning in a basement, touching their guns the way I'd like to touch Diana Rigg....

[Nancy Martin]

The family who named their son Hitler. Now, there wasn't somebody who could have talked them out of that? What's going to become of that child when he hits kindergarten? No, wait--I bet he'll be home-"schooled."

[Karen in Ohio]

And how about the twin teen girls who call themselves Prussian Blue, singing hate songs? What kind of wackjob parenting are they getting?

[David]

If you want an eyeful of hate group information, do a Google search for Southern Poverty Law Center and look at their site, splcenter.org. Morris Dees and his organization have been tracking hate group activity for more than 40 years, shining light on the KKK, Identity Movement, skinhead, White Power, etc. groups and their activities.

SPLC has sued -- and bankrupted -- KKK groups in the past. Most of them spring up again with a different name and new funding, but every lawful step against these people counts. (Hate groups were a sort of project of mine 20 years ago when I was a journalist in Arkansas and Mississippi. I was most interested in The Order and their violent brothers. But I once covered a NAACP march and a KKK march on the same street, on the same day -- one in the morning and one in the afternoon.)

Click on the button on the left of the homepage labeled HATE GROUP MAP. You'll be surprised at the state with the most active hate groups, according to the SPLC.

dls

[Alan P.]

Sadly the Internet has long been a great tool for hate groups. It makes it so much easier to have a copy of "The Turner Diaries" or "Mein Kampf" when it is just a .pdf file.

One day, about five years ago, there was a flier near my car when I went to take my daughter to preschool. I tossed it in the car and didn't think anything of it. We have a lot of college age neighbors and club fliers end up in the parking lot sometimes. That was until I read it at a stop light. It was an "informational" flier from the National Alliance. When I circled back through the neighborhood, I realized the fliers were only by Jewish houses. The flier ended up at the police station.

In addition to the SPLC, the FBI and ADL have information on hate groups. And while some conservative groups try to distance themselves from their Nazi-esque brethren. They do not condemn their actions when they protest gay marriage, abortion, etc. either.

[judy merrill larsen]

I'm not naive, but I just don't get it. Their brains must be so warped from childhood on--it's like the line from "South Pacific"--"you've got to be carefully taught."

There's so much hate and anger out there--did anyone else see that video of the woman at a town meeting (I think for a Pennsylvania congressman) where she went absolutely apeshit about Obama's supposed lack of a US birth certificate? The hatred was palpable . . . and terrifying.

[Book Tarts]

My husband Don wrote an article about the rise of hate crimes reports in Florida. The rise in reports is considered a good thing by the authorities. They said there are NO hate crimes reported in Mississippi. Not to pick on Old Miss. Hate is thriving. When we first moved to Florida, we looked at a house in Deerfield Beach. Afterward, we stopped at a bar to discuss buying it. On the bulletin board in the back room was an announcement for a KKK meeting. We paid our bill and did not buy the house.
One small solution: Speak up. When people email hate "jokes" or tell them, say no and say why. Silence is a form of consent.
Elaine Viets

[Maryann Mercer]

It's not that much of a stretch to believe that Central Illinois has its share of KKK or other hate groups...as much as I think living in a university community fosters multi-cultural exchange, we are at the tip of the Bible Belt (and of course there are the Neo-Nazis in Chicago). As much as I deplore the existance of groups like the Klan or the Aryan Brotherhood, at least they're honest about their motives. I'm more concerned with the righteous folk of the Christian Right...those who cannot condone anything other than their own narrow view of what should or will be, including The Rapture. When Mark Levin's book came out, some of our customers literally drooled at the prospect of holding it in their hands. Others, when we ran out, accused us of not carrying it on purpose as if we were depriving them of the new Gospel of Mark. I had one customer criticize B&N because "you don't carry Fundamentalist Christian books." Like what? The Bible? Strong's Concordance? Argggh! The intolerance of these 'true believers' rivals that of the Klan...although the KKK and the Aryan Brotherhood are up front about who and what they hate. Nothing is couched in "love thy neighbor as long as he agrees with you"'rhetoric. (Did I mention that our Christian section is often the messiest? Perhaps they feel forgiven already for mistreating books not their own).
My mom taught tolerance...as an immigrant herself, she understood what being different meant and was determined her kids would treat others as fairly as possible, in the way Jesus would. Maybe that's why people practicing intolerance in the name of God scare me as well as drive me batty.
Thanks for the post, Kathy. I think we sometimes forget what evil still lurks in the heart of man...and in the shadows under the guise of a 'social club'.

[Lynn Parker]

My friend, who works in downtown Detroit, recently saw a license plate while driving to work that simply had KLU on it. I grew up in Ann Arbor, an incredibly diverse college town and am probably naive about racism so I didn't see the same thing at first. My friend was LIVID about it. At first I just saw what could be Kevin Lucas Underwood's initials. Duh. Now I wonder if the Secretary of State in Michigan didn't catch it....I know the Klan is alive and well these days but after reading this blog today I feel sick. And angry.

[Karen in Ohio]

Hatred grows out of fear and ignorance. When I see or hear someone proclaiming hatred for or about someone who is different from them I know I am seeing fear in action. In these days of more racial diversity than ever before in the US we are seeing the results of the end of white dominance, and it scares the daylights out of some, to know that they are in danger of losing their long-assumed superiority.

It never seems to occur to these yahoos that more racial diversity is actually better than one group dominating all the rest. It's all in whose ox is being gored.

[Kathy Sweeney]

Thanks for the great comments. I did some of my research via the Southern Poverty Law Center - we've been supporters of that organization for years. They do great work in using the full extent of the law to pursue hate groups of all kinds.

And I agree - there are just as many demons out there hiding behind bibles and other religious symbols as white sheets.

If you haven't seen Jon Stewart's take on these nutters who claim Obama was born in Kenya, check it out at The Daily Show's Website. He and Colbert help keep me somewhat sane with this bullshit.

[Kathy Sweeney]

Got this via e-mail from Libby - a bit of levity on this grotesque subject:

http://hangingstranger.blogspot.com/2005/06/neo-nazis-are-douche-bags.html

[Ramona]

Kathy--and anyone with young schoolchildren-- Southern Poverty Law Center used to provide info packs about racism for elementary schools. I'm not sure if the program is active, but it's worth a look. You had to go through an application process, IIRC, but it wasn't difficult.

One thing I'd like to never hear again is griping about Obama's middle name being Hussein. FFS, did he name himself? No. Let it frigging go.

[michele]

Hear, hear Kathy -- great blog.

[Lynn Parker]

Hijack------
Yesterday, after one hundred seventy four years in business the final edition of my hometown newspaper, The Ann Arbor News, was published. Sad......

[Pam aka SisterZip]

I guess maybe I missed something. But isn't the fact that the President's mother was a US citizen enough for him to be Prez? I didn't think that you actually had to be born on US land. I thought you only had to be a natural born citizen.

[Kathy Sweeney]

Oh Pam, you're so silly, confusing the issue with FACTS.

As my kids would say: Who'd win in a fight?

(a) The Arnold Schwarzenegger people who want to amend the Constitution so he could be President; or

(b) The "Birther" people who claim, despite multiple facts to the contrary, that Obama is not a citizen?

[Karen in Ohio]

Uh, yeah. The Arnold/Obama issue seems mutually exclusive to me, but what do I know?

As I used to say on the political board I posted on a long time ago, you can't have it both ways. Doesn't it seem as though that has been the goal, though, for quite a while? Again, it depends on whose ox is being gored.

[Mary Eman]

Judy - it was in Delaware, a town hall meeting with our one US Congressman, Mike Castle, with the woman waving her birth certificate around, saying that Obama can't be president because he wasn't born in the US.

Let me apologize for those of us in the state who cringed at her actions.

[Me, Margie]

It's Me, Margie.

Three words for all these DBs: Bat. Shit. Crazy.

My Uncles say in the old neighborhood, that's how the immigrants got to know each other - common enemies.

We think street justice is the answer. Just saying. Not that I know about anything specific that already happened to skinheads who don't come around no more. Seriously.

[Doc in CA]

I'm with Mt, Margie on this one. Street justice is the way to deal with these redneck pinheads.

Remember: You can accomplish more with a lead filled baseball bat and a stern word than you can with just a stern word.

[Doc in CA]

Arrgh! ME, Margie! Not Mt. Margie.

Or would that sound like "mount Margie"? :)

[Pam aka SisterZip]

Doc, you're giving Rednecks a bad name. I personally know of two rednecks who voted for Obama.

;-)

[Me, Margie]

Doc, Sweetheart, I thought we were going to keep that Mt. Margie thing, um, between us...?

[michele]

I'm pretty sure "natural born citizen" means born on U.S. soil. That's why there was also talk during the campaign regarding John McCain, who despite having two U.S. citizen parents, was born on a military base in the Panama Canal zone. Funny how there's no "birther" movement surrounding him, huh?

[Pam aka SisterZip]

It really isn't clear. Just because you are born on US soil that doesn't make you a natural born citizen either.

Let's make it as ambiguous as possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born_citizen

[bea]

Let them all talk. Speech is protected for a reason. Hate will fail as a political movement, as a spiritual solution, and as a rallying cry. It simply will not work--we have to trust ourselves enough to KNOW that it will not work. It never has, and it never will.

[Harley]

When I was little, I was at a party where someone told an ethnic joke that was mildly amusing. One of my cousins (a very funny guy, BTW) calmly said that he didn't like ethnic jokes, and pointedly walked out of the room. I've never forgotten that. If not for that cousin, I'd have assumed that ethnic jokes are okay, that they're just jokes, and what's the big deal/lighten up. What he gave me was a different perspective -- one guy against a roomful of people.

I try to speak up in situations where silence could be interpreted as agreement/approval. I figure there might be some little kid listening who needs to know that there's another perspective out there. Or even a big kid.

I love the Southern Poverty Law Center. I wish we were farther along in this "can't we all just get along?" adventure . . .

[Tom]

Behold the power of AM hate radio. AM has a long reach for minimal investment. There must be special circles of hell reserved for those who exploit children's fears, and childish fears of older people.

But some people are addicted to their hatred and their adrenalin. Really addicted. Yes, I'm saying it's a mental illness to be so fulsomely hateful. Many of these folks do not want to be cured.

If we could loosen the grip of ignorance and reduce the grinding force of poverty, we'd be a long way toward diminishing fear and defanging hatred.

[hollygee]

Harley -- good for your cousin.
I learned the hard way. I once repeated a mildly ethnic joke in the wrong audience. It was coldly received. I am smart enough to have learned my lesson to (1) not use ethnic jokes and (2) why they harm.

[Kathy Sweeney]

TOTAL HIJACK--

Kate's best friend RACHEL ROTHENBERG made the Jeopardy Teen Tournament!!

Naturally, we will be coaching. All advice appreciated. Like, if Alex says the answer is wrong, do NOT say: "That's not what your Mother said last night, Trebec" in a Scottish accent.

[William Simon]

The Terminator as President?

Join me now, brothers and sisters, in a chorus of "O, Canada". Vancouver is lovely, and I hear more toward the middle of the coutry things are still unspoiled and nice....

Dammit, Kathy, you already gave Rachel the advice *I* was going to give... dammit!

[gaylin in vancouver]

Yes William, Vancouver is lovely! Sun is out, no snow on the mountains, fireworks, Gay Pride, Bard on the Beach.
Middle of Canada, very flat.

[storyteller Mary]

SPLC does many good things -- one was a program to "mix it up" at lunch, encouraging students to break out of their cliques for a week to eat lunch with various groups. Only a few of our students participated (22-minute lunch periods don't leave much time for experiments), but the ones who did enjoyed the experience.

I'm "tweaking" the recordings I made on my Apple with the Snowball mic. Yesterday Anne brought Josiah, Hanna, and Brianna to record some stories with me for my "Frog and Friends" CD. We had a great time, and then toasted each other with sparkling grape juice!

Perhaps in dealing with this more serious issue, we'd need something stronger -- apple martinis?? CHOCOLATE MARTINIS!!!!!! PINA COLADA?? mojito?
(or a favorite from my mis-spent youth, Harvey Wallbangers made with sloe gin . . .I won't right the name of the drink here, because you all have imaginations . . . ;-)

[Jerry House]

In the small town where I grew up, there waqs (according to the stories) a chapter of the KKK. Unfortunately, there were no blacks or minorities of any kind. A Catholic family moved in and this noble band finally had a chance to burn a cross on someone's lawn. The Klan members (again, according to the story) realized that this was a big waste of time and shortly thereafter disbanded.

I've never been able to find anything in print to back up any part of the story, but I do believe it. I have known too many people who have gotten caught up in a really dumb idea and later had a What-Was-I-Thinking epiphany later.

[Laraine]

Re: the highest concentration of groups being in CA . . . makes sense to me because of the always-present tension between the many, many interest groups here: military, non-military, a zillion ethnic groups, uber-wealthy and the rest of us shlubs, Hollywood and rural, multiple climate zones . . . but I blame most of it on our weird initiatives process and Arnold . . . enough to drive any state bonkers.