HATRED ON PARADE: Ku Klux Klan recruitment drive raises old fears in S C

[doxydad]

A new chapter of the racist organization is making waves in Abbeville, S.C., but experts say the KKK is a fading force

ABBEVILLE, S.C. — Sunday afternoon after church, youth pastor Demond Dawson was rounding up a van load of kids dressed in their Sunday best. The group had stopped at the Dollar General in Abbeville for snacks and cold drinks.

As the kids teased each other on the sidewalk outside the store, a weekend rally of the Ku Klux Klan taking place at the very same time in this county was weighing heavily on Dawson’s mind. A recently formed branch of the KKK — the New Empire Knights — held a three-day “KKK Jam” rally over the weekend in an undisclosed location in Abbeville, which it calls its national headquarters.

Klan organizations have made numerous public overtures in South Carolina in recent weeks, including a recruitment campaign of bags of candy tossed into yards with leaflets reading, “Save Our Land, Join the Klan.” According to hate group watchdogs, however, the Klan has dwindling membership and is in a “last gasp” to retain relevancy.

Word of the Klan rally in Abbeville has prompted a lot of questions from the children of the predominantly African-American Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Dawson said. What they want to know most, he said, is why Klan members wear masks. “That scares them.”

“It’s just more trouble on me, raisin’ them up to do the right thing when they can see people with masks on, then I’ve got to explain to them, ‘why do you have a mask on?’” Dawson said. There’s a rumor circulating through the black community that the Klan will soon march through town, right through the town’s square. “[The kids] haven’t seen them yet, but I don’t want them to see them,” he said.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/8/1/ku-klux-klan.html

[Nuclear Unicorn]

1. The people of Abbeville should have an interracial community BBQ.

Don't advertise it as a direct challenge to the Klueless Klux Klan, just as an opportunity to get together with your neighbors for food and fun.

[In_The_Wind]

3. Good luck with that.

[dawg]

4. I'm sure there are plenty of good people in Abbeville.

I don't live too far from there myself. It's a beautiful town with a historic opera house.

[In_The_Wind]

5. I agree with you. It's beautiful.

How many of those good people would be afraid of having the Klan taking photos of them at the gathering? IMO: The Klan is still dangerous.

[dawg]

6. Personally, I think of the Klan as being kind of a joke these days.

But then again, I'm white, so I guess I have that luxury. I can remember a Klan rally in my town maybe 25 or 30 years ago. That's the last activity I can remember from them locally, and even then it was a big joke to most of the people I knew. We mostly laughed and made fun of our more racist acquaintances, saying that for sure, we knew "Tony" and "Fred" were among the guys wearing the sheets.

I know that there wouldn't be much fear in my town of going to an interracial unity BBQ in defiance of the Klan. I doubt it would be that much worse in a similar town a few hours drive away.

[In_The_Wind]

8. I wish you were right.

I'm a 66 year old white woman raised in the southeast. I thought the Klan was a problem of the past until I lived in Texas for a few months in 2010. I was told to avoid Hope Ak as my views would not be welcomed there.

http://www.metafilter.com/47884/Dont-let-the-sun-set-on-you-in-this-town

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4969507

[elzenmahn]

9. Please don't underestimate them, though...

...when any organization can tap into fear (the seed of hate) and despair (especially economic and political), the results are often authoritarian and violent. If it isn't the Klan, it will be any number of white-supremacist groups that will come out of the woods and display their wares in a town square, much like this one.

The Klan itself may have turned itself into a caricature, but the attitudes that created and fostered the KKK are alive and well.

[dawg]

10. Racism is not only alive and well around here, it ...

doesn't even look tired or sick. But the Klan itself isn't much of an entity.

In the old days, the Klan probably had it's fingers pretty deep into local governments and law enforcement agencies. Nowadays, that isn't the case.

Of course, two or three crazy people, gathered together, are still capable of doing terrible things.

[shenmue]

2. I wish the stupid Klan would turn their masks around

So the eye holes are at the back and they can't see anything. Then they'll just bump into stuff.

Seriously, who wants to be these freaks? Why do they exist in the 21st Century?

[mountain grammy]

7. the Klan is a fine Christian organization..

good white, Christian men.

[In_The_Wind]

13. I see what you did there.

[Fla Dem]

11. Just one more hate group to add to the list. Here's an interative map of hate groups by state.

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map#s=FL

[heaven05]

12. great resource

had to prove a point to an american pollyanna thinker this morning. This center did prove my point.