My KKK experience (kinda long)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve been away a while (didn’t post much so I’m probably unfamiliar to most) but that doesn’t matter. Recently I was cleaing out my bedroom and came across a KKK newspaper. They actually have a newspaper. Here’s the story.

One day a few years ago, my husband was waiting for me outside in his truck. He was parked in the parking lot at my job when this guy comes up to his window and strikes up a conversation. He hands my husband a rolled up newspaper with a flyer wrapped around it. He told him it was for Christians and that he should read it. My husband takes it, tells him ok, and the guy turns to leave. Almost as an afterthought he says, “It’s for whites only.”

This is where I come out of the store. I see some guy hop into his pick-up truck and leave. My husband is fuming. He’s shaking this rolled up newspaper at me and yelling, “I should burn this in his face!” After he calmed down he told me what happened. The flyer on the outside of the newspaper invited you to come out to their picnic. It invites you to bring your children and celebrate Christianity. Oh and please stay for our cross burning ceremony. It really said that. Complete with driving instructions on how to get there.

The newspaper is a terrible thing. The things they say, the points they try to make, it’s really sickening. I keep it as a reminder that even in this century, people still think like that. Maybe one day, if the world ever changes, I can show any future generations what it was like.

Anyway my thing is, one day they are going to give it to the wrong person. They’re going to assume that just because someone looks white, they are. Or maybe that person is dating someone of another race. That person might just be irrational and do something physical. I’m half Puerto Rican myself and I’m willing to bet they wouldn’t have given him that if they had known.

2

I suppose that it would be better than the alternative explanation that they invited him to their special cross-burning picnic 20 miles out into the sticks, because they did know . . .

3

Can we all share our KKK stories?

I was friends with a transexual licensed nurse practitioner (I don’t know if she was pre or post-op: it seemed like one of those rude questions my mom raised me not to ask) who travelled all over Appalachian Georgia. One of her patients was some kind of local wizard. Evertime she needed to take his vitals or inject his meds or stick a thermometer in his butt, he’d express his outrage at the indignity, always punctuated with “I’m the Grand Wizard of Hall County!”

There’s a natural poetry in the image of a septigenarian KKK grand wizard having a suppository inserted into his withered old rectum by a highly-trained transexual.

4

I’ve no KKK stories, our racists are buffoons.
I think we’re doing ok in those stakes here, I could be wrong but we haven’t got any properly organised or respected anti-immigration groups.

I did want to get a confederate flag when I was in Virginia (for divilment) but couldn’t find one. That’s progress. :slight_smile:

5

I got my KKK card in the mail!

You see, I am the third person in my family with my name. The bank accidentally sent me a credit card where, instead of having “III” at the end, the letter right under the “I” on the keyboard was repeated three times.

I have yet to get a special discount on white sheets, though. I’m rather disappointed.

6

I guess what surprised me the most was they they just hand stuff out. It’s like hey, there’s a good ol’ boy, lets give him some of our fine literature. Bah.

An Gadaí Do you want me to mail a flag to you? Heh.

7

No, there’s not. :slight_smile: There’s an image I didn’t need before coffee. Poetry is the wrong word.

Seriously, though, it’s not likely that the irony of the situation would ever penetrate his closed mind. He’ll just attribute it to the grand conspiracy that they are all a part of and that all of his rantings over the years have been proven right . He’ll go to his grave thinking that way.

8

First week of grad school 21 years ago this month, I was perusing the library & found a truly fine collection of racist/anti-Semitic literature- the entire run of AMERICAN MERCURY from it’s prestigious Mencken origins all the way to it’s decline & fall at the hands of Willis Carto, a bunch of books from Noontide Press (Carto’s pub house) including HoloHoax crap, and on the other side, a 1930’s book by, I believe, Herman Bernstein- THE TRUTH ABOUT ‘THE PROTOCOLS’ which reprints all the 19th-century fictions from which the Protocols were plagiarized & explained how they were cobbled together into the PEZ.

So I was with a group of dorm-mates at dinner expressing my amazement that the school had this in the library & my admiration as I believed this nonsense should be
exposed to the light instead of made taboo- and one fellow said quietly “So, what do
you think about the theory of a Jewish conspiracy trying to control politics & economics? I think there might be something to it.” Turns out while in high school, he’d almost joined a teen Klan chapter & then just decided to not show up to the installment ceremony. He was kinda a slowly recovering racist/anti-Semite. I explained my more moderate non-racist, non-sectarian Birchite beliefs in the Conspiracy, and for the rest of the year, we became B.S. buddies. Not good friends
but guys who just hung out to shoot the bull. He moderated even more throughout the year & I think when we parted ways, was expressing greater tolerance of race-mixing, so people can learn & mellow out.

9

Ah no my flag flying days are over. Here, the confederate flag is mainly used to sell beef burgers. :slight_smile:

10

You were right. Good instincts!

My story: Evil Ex-Roommate, who shaved his head, was approached on a few occasions by Aryan Nation types asking if he wanted to join. This was funny because he was a bisexual, mentally ill, socialist Jew of Roma descent. If he had actually been in Nazi Germany, he would have had every triangle except Jehovah’s Witness and antisocial woman.

11

I went fishing on a charter boat about 10 years ago with a couple co-workers. 2 other customers on the boat were young men that decided 10 miles out into the Pacific Ocean was a good place to mention they belonged to the Aryan Nation and started with some racist ramblings. One of my co-workers took a picture out of his wallet and showed it to they idiots and asked them to guess who was in the picture. One replied a bunch of n*****s. My co-worker replied it was his wife and children and unless they wanted to be shark bait, they really ought to think about changing their tune. The captain of the boat then suggested they spend the rest of the day on the bow of the boat where he could see them, he didn’t want to lose any passengers that day. They became persona non gratis the rest of the day.

12

Don’t get us wrong. The KKK are buffoons and nobody respects them but other buffoons. They’ve been the butt of the joke for a long time.

13

I don’t have any interesting KKK stories. But when I was about eight found rolled up newspapers on people’s lawns (including my own). I unrolled one to see a swastica. I thought it would be just the thing for playing army. I showed it to my mom and she became upset and snatched it away and told me it was bad.

When my grandparents moved off the ‘ranch’ into a house in Medofrd, OR. I was visiting one day when I was in my 20s and went outside to walk around. This guy in rodeo attire (Wrangler jeans, rodeo-style shirt, cowboy boots and a black cowboy hat) greeted me and then said, ‘These two n*****s were walking down the road…’ I don’t remember the rest of his ‘joke’, but I excused myself as quickly as possible.

14

Terrible.

Now read that post again but this time do it as I did - without any understanding that the KKK has ‘wizard’ as a title.

:smiley:

15

Please tell me this didn’t happen in Arkansas. :frowning:

16

In the early 70’s I lived in rural southern Mississippi. I recall one occasion, while stopped at a traffic light, the Klan had people solicting funds by walking among the stopped cars. They were in full regalia, w/ their pointy hats and embroidered sheets.
One of my wife’s friends was married to a Klan member. I tried to avoid him as much as possible, but I was tolerant in deference to my wife’s friendship. He claimed to be a former Philadelphia cop who had to leave Pa. because of some Jewish political conspiracy against him. He tried to give me a copy of Mein Kampf, claiming it would change my mind (about what I’m not sure).
He tried to convince me that the Klan was not a racially predjudice organization by using an example: He supposedly had a co-worker (white guy) who frequently blew his paycheck on booze, depriving his wife and kids. They (Klan members) grabbed this guy one payday, took him into the woods, tied him to a tree and terrorized him until late into the night warning the guy it would be worse the next time, if he didn’t stop his drinking and start taking care of his family. Then they took the guy home and handed his wife his paycheck.
This story was supposed to convince me that the Klan was an organization that was good for the community, not racially motivated. I recall asking him if they weren’t worried about the guy going to the police. He told me they didn’t have to worry about that. (wink,wink)
He was constantly trying to get me to join the Klan. I usually told him I couldn’t because of being in the military, that usually shut him up, but he did try to convince me that they didn’t have to know.
In addition to respect for my wife’s friendship, I had to consider where we lived and possible repurcussions of being to outspoken against the Klan. You never knew who might be a member.
On another occasion we stopped by their home to find the wife and kids sitting down to a dinner of mac & cheese and Kool Aid. She told us her husband was in Alabama at a Klan rally. Apparently it’s OK to deprive your family for the Klan, but not to get drunk?
Several years later I recall reading about this same guy. He was now some kind of dragon, or wizard, and had been arrested for something associated w/ Klan activity.

17

[hijack] The Mafia, Yakuza, IRA, Black Panthers, etc. all fall back on this kind of crap. I wouldn’t be surprised if the historical Robin Hood himself extorted “donations” from the local peasantry. [/hijack]

18

Further to **Slithy Tove’s ** hijack.
Here’s a report on Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland tarring and feathering a drug dealer. The locals comments are interesting.

19

For those not in the know, I’m from Bakersfield, California and while I do believe my little town gets a bad rap it most certainly doesn’t deserve, there are some fringe places on the outskirts of town that are pretty scary.

Oildale (which I’m often surprised to find out most folks have heard of) is on the North end of town, but is technically not actually part of the city. Now, Oildale is pretty much as awful as the name would imply- white trash-a-palooza, if you will. Houses with trailers in the yards, cars all over the yards, men with big ol’ beer bellies (and swatstika tattoos) walkin’ down the street like it’s nothin’ to them, poor dental hygiene, cousins bangin’ cousins and reproducing little web-footed children- you get the idea.

Well, as one might imagine, such a classy place as Oildale is a natural fit with the wonderful KKK. There is a middle school in Oildale (Standard, for the interested parties) which has a beautiful, large auditorium. Once a month, if you can arrive at the right time, you’ll see a bunch of men in white robes and hoods, meandering into the auditorium for their monthly meetings.

I went to driving school in Oildale because it was vastly cheaper than the rest of town (go figure) and next to our school was a barber shop. In the window of said barber shop was a sign that more or less read, “KKK- Show your card, get a free cut and shave!”

Also, just about every time I’ve sat and watched a KKK episode of Jerry Springer and they show the person’s hometown, it’s always Oildale. I remember this one where the person said, “WE DON’T EVEN EAT BLACK PEPPER!!” Aside from thinking that poor person is missing out on countless culinary delights, I couldn’t help but sigh and say, “Oildale.”

Taft, California is also another KKK paradise. I haven’t been there in a while, but I’d say Taft is about 20 minutes West of Bakersfield. If you were to drive down the Main Street of Taft, you would see oodles of business with signs in the windows that say things like, “WE DON’T SERVE NIGGERS!” and “NIGGERS BETTER NOT BE AROUND HERE AFTER DARK!”

My mom once did a temp job where she had to drive through Taft, into the Hills to get to a work site. I didn’t believe her so she finally took a picture, but there was an honest to God giant white cross on the hillside with a bright red “KKK” written in the middle.

I went to a high school that was predominantly Hispanic and Black students. Naturally, our sports teams were pretty much entirely composed of - you guessed it- Hispanic and Black students (for instance, I was quite literally the only non Hispanic or Black person the tennis team). Well, our school had to stop going to play Taft at their school because it got to the point where Klan members were- in full white sheet regalia- hanging out far too close to our school’s buses for comfort. Add to that the Taft parents screaming things about “Niggers” and “Spics” and you can understand the decision to stay away from Taft even further.

But none of these things really happen in Bakersfield-proper. Over all, our actually little town is a bit more liberal than folks give credit for. The only KKK thing in actual-Bakersfield I can think of is from a few years ago. A black family (Mom, Dad, and 3 kids aged 6 months-4, I think) came home from a family vacation to find their house had been ransacked. “KKK” and “DIE NIGGERS” had been written all over their walls, furniture had been burned, all the kids’ toys had been destroyed, and all of the family pictures had knife slashes through them. Absolutely disgusting, needless to say.

The family was on the news that night and the next day they had: an entire brand new house given to them by a builder (they had been renting), free security system from a local security place, all new furniture from a local furniture store, bags and bags of free clothes for the kids, bags and bags of baby stuff for the babies, a fridge load and pantry load of food, and a photo retoucher even offered to fix all of their pictures for them for free.

So while there are some very bad aspects of my little community (well, I don’t consider those assholes part of my community, but that’s not the point), I think over all my town is comprised of good, non idiot folk. For instance, the Klan applied to take part in the annual Christmas parade, but were soundly rejected by the city council.

Anywho, those are my Klan stories!

20

Wow, it boggles my mind that they would be so open in this day and age, in California of all places! (I’m from Florida, and those kinds of things happening in the South wouldn’t surprise me quite as much.)