Hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan have no place in a nation where the majority wants to heal racial wounds.
—
The White male racists on Saturday who stood on and around the South Carolina statehouse to protest the removal of the confederate flag, and who shouted graphic slurs at Black onlookers struck a jarring similarity to the outdated heel wrestling gimmicks meant to draw heat from an audience who disbelief is suspended.
They were outrageous; they were ignorant; they were arrogant; they were offensive, they were, more than anything, archaic.
The Ku Klux Klan, without question, is one America’s first and most recognizable domestic terrorist organizations. And how they’re able to legally gather, protest, and spew hate speech in the 21st century is beyond my comprehension.
A social frenzy on the issue of the confederate flag and symbols of racism ensued after Mr. Dylan Roof walked into a historic A.M.E church in South Carolina last month and killed nine people, yet a permit was granted to The Loyal White Knights—a North Carolina-based group thought to be the largest KKK faction—allowing them not just to rally on the statehouse, but wave the same flag that has traumatized, and in some cases re-traumatized, an entire nation.
Mr. William Bader, an imperial wizard in the Trinity White Knights, told Raw Story that Saturday’s activities had originally included a church burning with members draped in their white sheets.
It seems that the KKK, which has diminished in membership and social clout over the years, abandoned that plan and instead opted to make domestic terrorists threats while guarded by police officers.
One gentleman actually referred to lynching one of the Black protesters, and of course, the officer just looked on, not attempting to mitigate tensions at the least, or at best do his f*cking job and arrest the racist nut for making a terroristic threat.
The Governor of South Carolina, who was applauded by many for leading the charge to remove the flag from the grounds of the statehouse, urged citizens just to stay away from the spectacle the KKK hoped to create. What she should’ve done, however, was outlaw the gathering, as, following her own logic, symbols of racism have no place on South Carolina’s scared grounds.
During the frenzy surrounding the removal of the confederate flag, it was suggested often that the flag belonged in a museum only, for historical purposes. I would argue that the same should be true for the KKK, or whatever is left of it.
The ideology of the KKK and the speech they promote have no place in a nation where a good majority of citizens want to mend racial wounds and build a true rainbow coalition to increase the quality of life for all people.
The KKK is a lackluster circus act, and the time for their final curtain call has come. It behooves federal lawmakers, especially those who genuinely fear and are against a race war, to draft legalization that outlaws American hate groups like the KKK.
As long as the KKK and groups like them have the right to recruit, protest and participate in society as if the sh*t their talking about is normal or productive and not threatening, this country will be at odds.
The first step to healing is removing the elements which cause pain, stress and strife. It’s time to put the KKK in a museum, preferably in the hall of shame and terror.
*Tune into 900amWURD or 900amWURD.com every Friday evening during the 6 o’clock hour to hear me relive #TheWeekThatWas*
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™
—
Photo: AP Photo/Evansville Press, Jonna Spelbring
We have a first amendment that prohibits government suppressing hateful political speech. KKK as an organization exists to promote hateful speech.