watched History Channel KKK Special tonight...

[GSLevel9]

and you know... if you haven't seen or thought much about them lately, it's actually shocking what it was/is. They showed lots of clips from the 20's and 30's when there were millions of members including a SCOTUS Justice.

And they were showing clips from modern day Klan functions.

Everyone can imagine how scary these people are... but until you see/hear them speak the HATE is unimaginable.

Btw, didn't realize that the actual birth of the Klan was somewhat less than evil and didn't turn nasty for several years after it's inception.

Thankfully they're a tiny minority now...

[GSLevel9]

1. and I'm not one prone to exaggeration...

but I swear I see a shadow of the Klan in the Teabagger movement.

[jtuck004]

2. Maybe not as tiny as you think...just not as publicized n/t

[Radical Activist]

3. hmmm...

I'd be interested to know what they said about the birth of the klan not being evil. They were a terrorist organization of former confederate soldiers in the 1870's. Destroying the first incarnation of the Klan is a reason why Grant was one of our greatest Presidents.

[GSLevel9]

5. the show referred

to the 3 founders being college educated and the organization bearing a "social/fraternal" feel minus the college environment.

But within a couple years it became about the terror and anti-reconstruction... they said Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest was an early leader and disbanded the Klan after he saw the violence spread throughout the South but by then it'd gained a life of it's own.

[GSLevel9]

6. But IMHO... the 20th Century rebirth of the Klan

is even MORE scary... the 1920/1930's were a bad, bad time to be AA in the South. I mean, a million hooded Klansmen (could have been tens of thousands) marched on the Capitol...

unreal.

[Radical Activist]

7. It was typical for early klan leaders

to deny even being members. The story about disbanding it was likely a cover.

[Jamastiene]

4. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but don't let your guard down.

Don't let yourself think they are that much of a tiny majority now. They are not, unfortunately. They don't call them the "invisible empire" for nothing. Fighting them is an ongoing battle. They are, as we speak, working silently in every sector of society, from government to at least one convenience store that I know of.

If you want more information, and want help learning the most effective strategy to fight them, look at the Southern Poverty Law Center's web site. http://www.splcenter.org

If you want to know one example of how the whole "invisible empire" tactic of theirs is carried out, type college+professor+eugenics in a search engine.

I wish you were right. We could certainly do without all their hatred.

[awoke_in_2003]

8. I have watched that program...

several time in the last couple years. I really wish I could say the KKK was an aberration... but I lived in rural Alabama from 1976 to 1980- the hate is deep. It was a BIG culture shock living down there, coming from the northeast with hippy parents. Even though it was against the law, our town hall had two drinking fountains- yeah, the signs were no longer there, but it was "understood" which one was which. The hate exists today. I live in the south and am white- people say the damnedest things when they assume (because of skin color) that you agree with them. Just about every day I feel ashamed to be a white man.

[Swamp Rat]

9. WITE POWR1!

OOPS!!




AHH! Much better!

[madamesilverspurs]

10. They're everywhere, it seems.

Couple years back I was getting ready to head down the road to Denver to some events surrounding the DNC. My living room was buried in Obama gear in preparation, and my landlord remarked on it when he came by to fix something. As he was tinkering he started spewing all the rightwing garbage, and I allowed as how some of the points he was making were listed on the KKK site. His wife piped up that their entire family is Klan, and she smiled when she said it. They'd recently purchased the building, and I already didn't like the way they treated the property. But that bit of news was more than I could stomach, and after twelve years I moved. I simply could not justify sending them a check each month.

And during the town halls last year there were always a few skinheads who were pretty blatant with their white supremacist stuff, and they show up at the teabagger rallies, too. Strange people.

-

[Number23]

11. When I was a kid growing up, there were STILL places in Georgia that black people did not

go to at night. I remember hearing that if you ever had to go to Stone Mountain, you better make damn sure that you were out of there well before the sun went down.

Reminds me of that scene in "I am Legend" when Will Smith has his watch set to know when sundown is coming so that he can start boarding up his house to prepare for the zombies that came out at night. Black folks in Georgia know about "setting watches for sundown" and this was in the late 70's/early 80s.