The KKK Now

I once held a KKK outfit owned by my grandmother (KKK = Ku Klux Klan – warning – this will take you to the actual KKK Website, so you may not want to contribute to their online numbers) . What happened to that canvas-like outfit? I don’t know…I left it at her house, and I believe a cousin took it (and you know which cousin you are…as do all the other cousins). That loss – which is tantamount to a Chicago museum loss – doesn’t matter so much as how and why my grandparents joined the KKK in the early 1940s in the first place.

At that time, the KKK had taken a new bent in marketing – at least where my grandparents lived. The KKK was seemingly kind, cooperative with city government and willing to provide money to downtrodden businesses, civic organizations and churches. And, they appealed to the poor. As my uncle once said, you knew who attended KKK meetings, as many members only owned one pair of shoes. The toes of those shoes were on exhibit, even under those robes. But, it was the rich who were able to organize those meetings, that marketing and the activities. They were the hidden KKK members.

Many people during that time and place joined the KKK to prove that they were, indeed, white. This included many mulattoes who appeared “white,” but who had at least one drop or more of black blood running through their veins. A membership in the KKK in Virginia in the 1940s, for instance, would insure some measure of safety from Walter Plecker’s persecution against multiracial individuals. If you were a member of the KKK, how could you be anything but white?

During that brief period in history, the KKK built diving boards for public swimming pools (open only to whites), marched down aisles in churches (filled only with white Christians) and left gift baskets filled with fruit on black residents’ porches (according to my grandmother). But now? The KKK has, once again, changed its marketing, and the election of Barack Obama has fueled their intensity.

Take the recent spate of arrests and violent acts generated by the KKK:

• A member of a group linked to the Ku Klux Klan has been charged with murder following the death of an Oklahoma woman who was recruited via the internet, but subsequently tried to leave an initiation ceremony.
• A boy beaten by KKK members won compensation in court in the amount of 2.5 million dollars. His only offense? The KKK thought the 16-year-old boy was a member of the Latin-American minority (blacks aren’t the only target of the KKK).
• Patricia Gatti, admitted to writing “KKK” on the timecards of black employees at 264 The Grill, as well as posting “KKK” and “white power” notes in the back of the Palm Beach, Florida restaurant, and threatened to fire 57-year-old cook Raymonde Prudent if she did not vote for John McCain.
• An unnamed owner of a business in the southwest warned his employees that a vote for Obama was a vote for unemployment (this act was undocumented, but known personally by this writer).

These news stories all have happened this past year, and we’re sure many more stories will arise. Take, for instance, the story out of Louisville, Kentucky, where a lawsuit filed against Ku Klux Klan members in Meade County, an an ongoing effort to expose and destroy these types of groups.

And, by “these types of groups,” we mean groups who are often led by white men who carry tons of money and who do not want to lose a position of perceived power. Their followers, often, are poor people (men and women) who believe that these leaders and their groups can offer some solace and relief from the very real fear that they feel about progressive society. Those rich white men, in my opinion, need more exposure. They are the one who need to suffer for this wave of hate and fear.

What is the real solution to this new spate of hatred? The solution is to discover who finances these groups – often, the arrests involve extremists who are financed by high-level politicos who aren’t uncovered during investigation. Help investigators uncover those who finance these groups!

Then, the next process is to reach out to the poor and disenfranchised (this time – the poor whites), so that they can be reassured that a black president doesn’t mean a death sentence to their lifestyles – especially if they enjoy those lifestyles.

Finally, the last word on this commentary is education. Frankly, my grandmother would have turned over in her grave if she was alive now, because she believed that blacks were far less educated than whites and she wouldn’t believe that a black man would make a good president. And, during her time and in her place, she might have been correct. But now…she would have been wrong – and, although I can’t say that she would have voted for Barack Obama,  she would recognize that hatred is wrong. Why would I know this? Because she quit the Klan the first time they burned a cross in her neighborhood.

Don’t wait for someone to burn a cross in your neighborhood. Help to expose these hate-mongers whenever possible. Usually, you can contact local 911 in a case involving abuse against a person because of race; but, if you feel that your local authorities are involved in these movements, you will need to contact state or federal authorities. In this case, we suggest that you search for numbers or email addresses with a search that includes “report+crime+(your state).”