# A wet, stinky "fuck you" to the state of Alabama
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [March 20, 2002, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216 "2002-03-20T15:44:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2002, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/1 "2002-03-20T15:44:30Z")
Hey, I grew up here. I can do that, especially when residents and politicians here make the rest of us look like inbred, slope-browed [troglodytes](http://www.kukluxklan.net/).
You know, I’ve ranted and raved about various policies and phenomena found in this state that frustrate the living hell out of me. Roy Moore (the Ten Commandments judge,) [Senator Jeff Sessions](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=80346&highlight=Alabama), stupid Southern [fraternity tricks](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=97562), and [Alabama textbook inserts](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=98155) spring to mind.
So I guess you could say that Alabama’s reputation as a backwater and as a haven for oppression of all types is a bit of a hot button topic with me. Yeah, you could say that I get a little concerned about it, perhaps even a little worked up.
Actually, no. It eats me alive, and these fucking KKK bozos are the worst of the lot. They persist in a mode of thinking that makes me want to raze the state with Daisy Cutters. Some one in another thread coined the term Talibama, and you know what? To a certain extent, it’s true. Take a look at these brain surgeons’ treatises on the evils of Judaism and homosexuality
and (shudder) race mixing. Fucking evil, wrong-headed, stubborn, repressive assholes. Die and leave this place in peace already.
The terrorists, and I use that term to describe these cowardly, sheet-wearing motherfuckers, have already won.
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### Author:  [@Pucette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pucette)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2002, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/2 "2002-03-20T15:58:41Z")
I clicked on the link. I went to their website. I now feel dirty. And I feel dirty for my computer too.
:mad:
---
### Author:  [@jlzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlzania)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2002, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/3 "2002-03-20T16:25:17Z")
From the membership requirement page:
> [@](#):
>
> \*\* No White trash will be tolerated.\*\* The original Klan, led by General Nathan Bedford Forrest, were dignified southern Gentlemen.
I feel ever so much better knowing that the Klan has \* standards\* -don’t you?
---
### Author:  [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2002, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/4 "2002-03-20T16:42:11Z")
> [@](#):
>
> No White trash will be tolerated.
I guess they grandfathered most of their current members in, then.
---
### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2002, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/5 "2002-03-20T17:03:19Z")
Having absolutely nothing else to do this morning, I decided to look up all their Scripture cites under “Negroes and the Bible”. All Scripture quotes courtesy of [Bible Gateway](http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?language=english&version=NIV-IBS). All Alabama KKK quotes are in bold-face. If _you_ have absolutely nothing to do, go get another cup of coffee and scroll through this and see what you think.
**Beast-Chayah-Negro The word beast appears throughout the holy scriptures and often appears as simple “Beast” or “Beast of the field” or “Beast of the earth” . Three different Hebrew words are translated into the English word BEAST in the Bible. The Hebrew word CHAYAH means living creature, the word BEHEMA means meaning quadrupeds (like cattle), and BEIR meaning BRUTE BEAST. The Greek word ZOON translated BEAST means LIVING CREATURE.**
Okay, I can’t argue with that.
\*\*In tracing this word down through the scriptures, it is important to note that the Bible speaks of both quadruped (four footed) beast and biped (two legged) beasts. \*\*
Can’t argue with that, either. “Beast” is frequently used to refer figuratively to “beastly” men, i.e. “men behaving badly”. However, they’re starting to get into trouble here…
\*\*…If you have failed to distinguish between the beasts (quadruped) and beasts (biped) in the Holy Bible, you have missed a great deal of truth. \*\*
…speeding up down the slippery slope…
\*\*We are concerned with the Hebrew word CHAYAH, which means LIVING CREATURE, \*\*
…faster and faster…
**…and which we feel refers to the following biped (two legged) beasts.**
CRASH! Undismayed by the crash of their Logic Vehicle, the White Knights emerge with…
\*\*…Those who have clearly traced this Hebrew word CHAYAH through the scriptures under the English word beast, know it is speaking of the NEGRO ! \*\*
Okayyyy…So, judge for yourselves. Are the “beasts” in these Bible passages “Negroes”, “animals”, or “beastly men”?
**Was Joel speaking of a “beast” or field hand in Joel 2:22 ?**
> [@](#):
>
> 21 Be not afraid, O land;
> be glad and rejoice.
> Surely the Lord has done great things.
> 22 Be not afraid, O wild animals,
> for the open pastures are becoming green.
> The trees are bearing their fruit;
> the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
\*\*What kind of a beast do you know of that wears clothing (sack cloth) as we read in Jonah 3:8 ? \*\* and \*\*What kind of a beast “cries mightily unto God” in Jonah 3:8-10 ? \*\*
> [@](#):
>
> 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:
>
> "By the decree of the king and his nobles:
>
> Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish."
\*\*What kind of a beast has hands as reported in Exodus 19:13 ? \*\*
> [@](#):
>
> 10 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes 11 and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. 13 He shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether man or animal, he shall not be permitted to live.’ Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they go up to the mountain.”
Er, I don’t see that Exodus 19:13 says that a beast has “hands” at all. Perhaps the Alabama White Knights have a different translation? 😃
\*\*What type of beast is capable of mixing or “sowing” his seed with the “seed of Adam” as described in Jeremiah 31:27 ? \*\*
> [@](#):
>
> 23 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity, [3] the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘The Lord bless you, O righteous dwelling, O sacred mountain.’ 24 People will live together in Judah and all its towns-farmers and those who move about with their flocks. 25 I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”
> 26 At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me.
> 27 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord , “when I will plant the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the offspring of men and of animals. 28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord . 29
**What kind of a female beast could a man lust after and cause a penalty of death to be decreed by God? Leviticus 20:15** and, \*\*What kind of a male beast could a woman lust after and “lie down thereto” and cause God to have them executed in righteous judgement? Leviticus 20:16 \*\*
> [@](#):
>
> 15 " 'If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he must be put to death, and you must kill the animal.
> 16 " 'If a woman approaches an animal to have sexual relations with it, kill both the woman and the animal. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
“What kind of beast?” they ask. Evidently the Alabama White Knights aren’t familiar with the “farm boy/sheep” scenario, or with the Tijuana “dog and pony show”. They lead such _sheltered_ lives… 😃
\*\*What kind of a beast would have “eyes full of adultery” as recorded in 2nd Peter 2:12-14 ? \*\* and **What kind of a beast loves to “riot in the daytime”? 2nd Peter 2:12-14** and \*\* What kind of a beast can “talk” or “speak” ? 2nd Peter 2:12 \*\* and \*\*What kind of a beast was made to" be taken and destroyed? 2nd Peter 2:12 \*\*
> [@](#):
>
> 11Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. 12But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
> 13They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.[5] 14With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed–an accursed brood!
\*\*What kind of beast would have the ability to “keep the vineyard” as we find in the Song of Solomon, chapter 1 , who incidentally was black? \*\*
> [@](#):
>
> 5 Dark am I, yet lovely,
> O daughters of Jerusalem,
> dark like the tents of Kedar,
> like the tent curtains of Solomon. [3]
> 6 Do not stare at me because I am dark,
> because I am darkened by the sun.
> My mother’s sons were angry with me
> and made me take care of the vineyards;
> my own vineyard I have neglected.
That one is a weirdo one (I mean, they’re all weirdo, but this one in particular). There’s no mention of a “beast” at all, that I can find. Perhaps the Alabama White Knights have a different translation… 😃
My call is: their Bible quotes are all seriously, _seriously_ twisted. Why am I not surprised?
---
### Author:  [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2002, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/6 "2002-03-20T17:17:05Z")
Wow, **DDG**. I mean, WOW. What a great post.
I find two things really interesting about the Klan. One, that the state with the largest membership is CT (link coming, I promise), and two, that the original Klan was _nothing_ like what it’s turned into- it actually was a respectible organization back in its days. And then NBF basically took the group and went insane, and now we have… well, this. Ugh.
There’s a KKK ranch a few miles from me. They raise ostriches and have rallies. I can’t wait to move. (only a couple more months!)
**Ogre** , sweetie, we have 16 acres on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere, AL. Our neighbors are civil libertarians. I’m sure we can spot you an acre or two… come live with us. It’ll all be okay.
-BK
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### Author:  [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2002, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/7 "2002-03-20T17:50:54Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses
> 1 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. 2 “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard this.
> 3 (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)
> 4 At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you.” So the three of them came out. 5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward, 6 he said, "Listen to my words:
>
> “When a prophet of the Lord is among you,
> I reveal myself to him in visions,
> I speak to him in dreams.
> 7 But this is not true of my servant Moses;
> he is faithful in all my house.
> 8 With him I speak face to face,
> clearly and not in riddles;
> he sees the form of the Lord .
> Why then were you not afraid
> to speak against my servant Moses?”
>
> 9 The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them.
> 10 When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam-leprous, [1] like snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy; 11 and he said to Moses, “Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. 12 Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.”
> 13 So Moses cried out to the Lord , “O God, please heal her!”
> 14 The Lord replied to Moses, “If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.” 15 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.
> 16 After that, the people left Hazeroth and encamped in the Desert of Paran.
Now, to my reading, this says that Aaron and Miriam got all pissed off about Moses marrying a Cushite (Ethiopian) and spoke out against it, so God gave them leprosy. Now, I know that the Hebrews were insular, so they might have objected on the basis that this Cushite woman was not a Hebrew, but even if that’s so, I think it’s revealing that her race didn’t play a part in it.
Oh, but I forget. They were all just a bunch of filthy Jews, so it doesn’t matter.
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### Author:  [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2002, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/8 "2002-03-20T18:22:21Z")
FTR –
A _chaya_ is a wild animal (giraffe or deer for example).
A _behaimah_ is a domesticated animal (cattle).
OTOH, a _behaimah_ can also be used generically for any animal. Genesis 7:8 mentions “clean _behaimos_ and unclean \* behaimos\*.” There is no mention of _chayos_. Do the KKK believe that there were no bipedal animals on the ark?
As for the “quotes” that **Duck Duck Goose** brought up, she pretty much nailed them on the head. However, I’d like to add one small point:
Joel 2:22 uses the word _behaimah_, NOT _chaya_.
Ditto for the Jonah verse.
Ditto Exodus 19:13
And Jeremiah
And Leviticus
And, as you correctly point out, neither the word _behaimah_ or _chaya_ appear in that section of the Song of Solomon.
(I can’t address the Peter verse, but considering that Peter is not written in Hebrew, I doubt the word _chaya_ is used there as well.
So, if their proof is that _chaya_ = Negro, they have struck out on ALL their proof texts.
Zev Steinhardt
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### Author:  [@Xan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xan)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/9 "2002-03-21T00:43:05Z")
We all know the klan can’t be all that smart…they wear bed sheets for crying out loud! So I wouldn’t consider their sources all that reliable.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/10 "2002-03-21T01:14:12Z")
What do guys expect? It’s the KKK fer crying out loud! I mean, d’uh!
What next-Neo Nazis hate Jews?
I mean, yeah, I hate the Klan, but it’s hardly news.
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### Author:  [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/11 "2002-03-21T03:29:29Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Xan \*
> \*\*We all know the klan can’t be all that smart…they wear bed sheets for crying out loud! So I wouldn’t consider their sources all that reliable. \*\*
“I love it when the Klan appear on Jerry Springer in their really good robes, it’s so exciting, they’re all shiny like satin. Where do they get those clothes? Is there a KKK mart that they go to?”
- Margaret Cho
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### Author:  [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/12 "2002-03-21T06:58:31Z")
I’m not picking a fight with my homeboy **Ogre**. (really) I’ll just say that I have lived in Alabama for 40 years now and have never seen a robed klansman in person. I have never known anybody that I knew to be in the klan. While it is a despicable organization, it’s hardly something that one is frequently confronted with here.
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### Author:  [@rushtopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rushtopher)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/13 "2002-03-21T15:22:41Z")
Warn a guy before you post a link like that. I clicked before I read the rest of the post, and I had no idea it was gonna be the Klan.
Some of us read from work you know.
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### Author:  [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/14 "2002-03-21T15:51:11Z")
It’s true that it is extremely uncommon to see the Klan here, but I object to the sunzabitches being here at all, dragging this state’s name through the mud…again.
And rushtopher, I apologize. It never occurred to me to warn folks before they clicked. I suppose pornography isn’t the only form of objectionable material on the net, huh?
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### Author:  [@Nightsong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightsong)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/15 "2002-03-21T15:56:27Z")
Heh. The one time I saw a KKK member knowingly (As in: he was dressed up in full regalia, etc. A wee bit hard not to spot.) was in South Carolina, as the debate over ‘fly Confererate flag over capital or not’ was starting to heat up. He was sitting on the capital steps, looking quite bored out of his gourd. (At least that’s what his body posture led me to belive. That headgear thingy is pretty good at obsuring facial features.) First time I saw one ‘in the wild’ as opposed to a documentary on TV or in the paper. Haven’t seen one since.
What is it with the South… tradition is one thing. Hanging onto tradition tight enough to choke it to death is another.
* * *
\<\< How may I ignore you today? \>\>
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### Author:  [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/16 "2002-03-21T16:27:57Z")
Way back in my newspaper reporter days I worked with a photographer that had captured one of the most remarkable pictures I’ve ever seen.
He had been shooting a Klan march/rally somewhere in north Georgia. The police were in attendance in full riot gear, just in case. At one point in the rally a little girl, about two or three years old, in a robe and hood wandered over to a police officer, who happened to be black. The officer was standing with his shield resting on the ground and his hands atop the shield. The little girl, oblivious to the fact that the guy was a cop or black, was admiring her own reflection in the shield.
My co-worker snapped the shot seconds before a beligerent mother ran over, scooped her up and yelled at him for taking her picture.
It’s sad to know that innocent little girl has almost assuredly been subjected to years of indoctrination since and now would likely spit at that officer.
But I keep hoping it will someday end. I was raised in a highly bigoted family and rejected that idiocy, so maybe she will too.
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### Author:  [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/17 "2002-03-21T17:06:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by bobkitty \*
>
> **I find two things really interesting about the Klan. One, that the state with the largest membership is CT (link coming, I promise), and two, that the original Klan was _nothing_ like what it’s turned into- it actually was a respectible organization back in its days. And then NBF basically took the group and went insane, and now we have… well, this. Ugh.**
When exactly was the Klan a respectable organization? From [a paper at Emory University](http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~rarjet/home/research/exams/notes/klanhistory/1ST_ERA.HTM):
> [@](#):
>
> The first inaccuracy in most versions of Klan history is the notion that former Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest founded it in 1866. Although the charismatic cavalryman did in fact organize the Klan into a regional power dedicated to regaining the privilege that Southern whites had enjoyed prior to the war, the credit for founding the order rightfully belongs to a group of six young men in Pulaski, Tennessee.
>
> This original version of the Klan was little more than half-a-dozen idle young men riding the roads around Pulaski, providing spontaneous entertainment for themselves and their neighbors. As the organization grew, establishing new chapters in neighboring towns, the men began to tire of merely surprising their neighbors and hazing new initiates, and the Klansmen began to target their African-American neighbors with practical jokes and charades meant to intimidate them. Before long, the campaign of harassment turned violent.
It sounds like they were always racist idiots, and Forrest just encouraged them to become more so. The modern clan is, if anything, even worse than the first version, but please don’t delude yourself that they were ever the kind of folks you’d want to have over for lunch.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/18 "2002-03-21T17:33:46Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by JohnM \*
> \*\*
> It sounds like they were always racist idiots, and Forrest just encouraged them to become more so. \*\*
Well, and Forrest disassociated himself with the Klan in 1869, saying it was too violent and unneccesary.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/19 "2002-03-21T17:37:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by rushtopher \*
> \*\*Warn a guy before you post a link like that. I clicked before I read the rest of the post, and I had no idea it was gonna be the Klan.
>
> Some of us read from work you know. \*\*
Did you know that if your mousepointer is on a link, the address for that link appears in the bottom left corner of your browser? I saw the “[kukluxklan.net](http://kukluxklan.net)” down there and that was all I needed to know I should avoid it.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216/20 "2002-03-21T17:58:01Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by bobkitty \*
> \*\*and two, that the original Klan was _nothing_ like what it’s turned into- it actually was a respectible organization back in its days. And then NBF basically took the group and went insane, and now we have… well, this. Ugh.
> \*\*
It’s also important to remember that the current Klan isn’t the same as the original Klan, or even what the Klan became when Forrest took it.
The original Klan (and other groups like it…I’m using “Klan” here to refer to all groups with similar goals and methods) was made up of white southerners, mainly Confederate army veterans, who were upset about Reconstruction, and their main goal was to terrorize Republicans…to keep blacks from voting, to keep people from teaching blacks, to crush local Republican parties, etc. When Reconstruction ended, the Klan declared victory and disbanded.
Then, in 1915, two things happened. Birth of a Nation, the film adaptation of Dixon’s “The Clansmen”, a novel glorifying the old Klan, appeared, and was a smash hit, and Leo Frank (who was Jewish), a manager in an Atlanta pencil factory, was put on trial for the murder of one of his employees, and then lynched by a mob, events that got national attention.
So, spurred on by these events, a nativist, anti-semetic, anti-black, anti-communist group formed, calling itself the Ku Klux Klan and modeling itself on the old Klan. This was a nationwide organization, not just a southern one, and instead of hating just blacks, they hated everybody.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-wet-stinky-fuck-you-to-the-state-of-alabama/99216.md?page=2)