The Rev. Vince writes:
> Klan Watch would tell us that KKK activity per se is down right now.
I just had to comment on this...maybe not Klan membership in itself, but
white supremacist activity as a whole has actually been increasing. I do not
have exact numbers but for many reasons, a primary one being the threat to
white power, the membership numbers have been very high. Emma mentioned all
the propaganda at her school and young kids are a target. I think many other
people said it better and more eloquently but I have to agree that without
teacher guidance exposure to such websites could be very dangerous.
In my class on Racial Stratification my professor actually had info on these
groups and the numbers sure were increasing.
Love Nikki
"Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come true...Vienna waits for you" ~
Billy Joel
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Vince
> Lavieri
> Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2001 12:59 PM
> To: Jim L'Hommedieu
> Cc: _JMDL
> Subject: KKK,. white hate groups NJC
>
>
> I just love these discussions on an otherwise frigidly cold Sunday
> morning!
>
> The white power hate groups are everywhere, especially in small town and
> rural America, but in the big cities too. The last "white power rally"
> poster I tore down was in Kalamazoo, and that was in around 1992 or
> 1993, and it was posted on a streetpole in our integrated neighborhood.
>
> White supremist groups are out there, active. A standard enticement is
> to invite kids to a free rock concert where all the rock bands are white
> power groups (they have their own album labels, publishing companies,
> subculture, etc) and there are speeches in between the sets seeking kids
> to sign up.
>
> Edward Norton Jr. was not making that stuff in his movie "American
> History X." The movie chilled me because of its realistic portrayal of
> what is going on out there, even now as we post on this subject. It is
> a great movie. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
>
> Was it two years ago that the young man drove through Indiana and
> Illinois and killed random Jews, people of Asian descent, and African
> Americans - including by chance the former head coach of the Nothwestern
> basketball team - thinking that was the mission of his white supremist
> church, whose headquarters are in Illinois?
>
> My guess as to why Timothy McVeigh of the Michigan Militia wants to have
> a public execution - ever think why he does? - is that it is his
> outreach to attain cult status and inspire the many people out there to
> follow in his footsteps, people in our midst who subscribe to these
> types of things. And there are many, many out there.
>
> Klan Watch would tell us that KKK activity per se is down right now.
> For those who think that this means the problem has gone away, they are
> very naive. Others have continued in those paths with greater
> sophistication. Neo-nazi groups, militias such as McVeigh belonged to,
> white power hate groups and Christian hate churches are out there, full
> and not empty. Hell, right now I could drive you to the headquarters of
> the southern Michigan branch of the Michigan Militia, McVeigh's group.
>
> I'd say, show the kids the KKK websites. Let them read the Protocols of
> the Elders of Zion (the antiSemitic forged "proof" of the Jewish
> conspiracy) and let them read Mein Kampf.
>
> But give the kids context. I read all the hate literature, including
> Protocols and Mein Kampf, as a kid, I grew up in all white NW side
> Chicago in the 60s, how could I have missed it? I grew up in the
> midwest, which had major Klan chapters well into that decade, and I grew
> up in Chicago with George Lincoln Rockwell, head of the Nat. Assoc. for
> the Adv. of White People, or whatever he called it. Was it so long ago,
> maybe in our hallowed 1960s, that George Wallace ran for president and
> carried several states within a few years after his 'Segregation
> yesterday, segregation today, segregation forever" speech? But I also
> had enough perspective to know shit when I saw it. Evil shit.
>
> I do not believe in censorship. But I do believe in values, in a
> Scriptural morality that is the antithesis of this hate, Klan and
> otherwise. As the gay bumper sticker says, Hate is not a family value.
>
> What we have to do is teach our chidren our values, our rationales, our
> understandings and perspectives, and let them make their own decisions.
> Censorship only makes things exciting and forbidden. Lay the stuff out,
> say this is what it is, and this is why I am against what this is.
>
> That means we *talk* to the kids rather than always do our own things.
> You can't show a kid a movie about Holocaust and think you've done the
> job; he might be hearing elsewhere that the problem with Holocaust is
> that the Nazis didn't get them all. So watch together and talk
> together. Take the time to raise the kids with conversation, listening,
> and knowing what is out there. That means we have to stop being naive
> about what is out there, too.
>
> Censorship is not the answer, ongoing conversation is. Those
> conversations must go on over the course of years and be backed up by
> our lives.
>
> Kids will be recruited for a lot of things. What they accept, and what
> they pass by, that we have a chance to influence. Don't hide stuff from
> the kids, let them know what reality really is, and teach, and pray, and
> trust, and hope.
>
> All of this, of course, is my own opinion. I am glad that this forum
> can talk about stuff like this as there are few places out there where
> we can do so, exchange ideas and thoughts.
>
> (the Rev) Vince
