I burst into tears in a museum today: Never stood next to a KKK hood and gown before.

[lindysalsagal]

I said to myself, as I turned around and recognised it under glass, "I've never been in the presence of such evil and hatred before." My blood literally ran cold, I pictured the thousands of lynchings, and I lost it.

Part of it was the surprise: This was a small room of black history memorabilia, and the rest of it was photos, paintings, sculptures, and other arsty stuff. I wasn't anticipating this symbol of murder, hatred and in humanity. It was inside a case on the back side of a wide pillar. I turned around and was face to face with it.

It had stains. It had been worn. No way of knowing if the owners had killed or harmed an innocent victim in it.

[TlalocW]

1. First time I saw one was in college

An American history teacher whose class I took had one from the 30s/40s from my undergrad's general area, and he would bring it to class when learning about civil rights.

I don't know if it was due to age, but it wasn't pure white and had a lot of patches/badges on it so it belonged to someone important in the local Klan.

TlalocW

[SunSeeker]

2. Definitely take tissue if you ever go to the Smithsonian African American Museum in DC.

It will have an actual guard tower from Angola prison (basically a concentration camp for African American men), an actual segregated Pullman railroad car, a slave cabin...it will be massive and it opens September 24, 2016.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/a-first-look-inside-the-smithsonians-african-american-museum-stunning-views-grand-scale/2016/05/10/80ac784e-160e-11e6-9e16-2e5a123aac62_story.html

[awoke_in_2003]

9. Should I ever go to DC I will

white folk need to come to grips with the evil of their past.

[SunSeeker]

12. Yes, amazing that it took so long for us to build such a national museum.

I remember being in DC in 2001 and I hit all the museums on the National Mall. The Holocaust Museum affected me the most. I'll never forget the pile of shoes--an actual pile of shoes found in one of the death camps, accumulated as people were stripped of them as they entered the ovens. Such evil.

And then it dawned on me that we had no museum on the Mall documenting the evil that African Americans were subjected to. Finally, in 2016, we will have one. And I am sure it will be a gut punch even more than the Holocaust Museum...this was evil Americans did, not some European power an ocean away.

[awoke_in_2003]

13. I learned about the Holocaust from a survivor

It was my grandmother's boss. I asked him what the numbers on his arm meant. He taught me, but I never, before or since, experienced such sadness.

[Behind the Aegis]

14. An ocean away, or decades ago, the punch should be the same.

It is easy to be dismissive of "evils" committed by others or find reasons why it isn't as impactful as other "evils", but it can lead to lack of empathy. The evils may be different, but the effect is still as real and lasting.

[SunSeeker]

15. I am not being "dismissive" of evils committed by others.

Of course they are just as real.

The point I was making is that you are struck by the horror of the evil itself, as well as the horror that your fellow Americans did it in the country you love. Kind of like the double horror of finding out your own child killed someone.

[Behind the Aegis]

16. I was responding to your remark.

"...this was evil Americans did, not some European power an ocean away"

While it may not have meant to be dismissive, it was seemingly comparative in a way that made it seem it wasn't as "impactful". As someone who has heard "get over it!" and "oh, a Jew playing the "Holocaust card", how original.", it upset me.

ETA: I saw your update. I understand what you are saying now, but it still was uncomfortable for me. My issue.

[SunSeeker]

17. Wow. I can't imagine anyone saying that to you.

I certainly would never say such a thing.

[Behind the Aegis]

18. I apprecaite it.

I also appreciate your clarifying your comment. Hopefully, you can also understand my reaction to it. The second comment wasn't made to me directly, but it was made here...at DU. And yes, that poster is still here.

[Hoyt]

3. I can empathize. I saw a Klan rally as a kid from a distance from my grandparent porch

in rural Georgia. Didn't get significance of rural farmers dancing around a burning cross at that age other than fear, but I do now. I remember my grandmother taking food over to the Black farmily that lived across the dirt road the next day. The whole period and things that went on 50+ years ago, still haunt me. When I think of Howard Zinn's description of the way slaves were packed below decks in ships, I gasp for breath.

I applaud those who fought to change that hatred. Don't cry much, but I feel for those subjected to such hatred.

[SunSeeker]

5. Wow. Your grandmother was incredibly brave.

The South would be a different place if there were more people like your grandparents.

[awoke_in_2003]

10. My family moved to Alabama in 76

from Ohio. Even at that time, it was quite a culture shock.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Sorry for the tears, but you are stronger now than ever before.

We move forward. Back a step or two sometimes, but the unstoppable trend is forward.

Together we are stronger.

[Behind the Aegis]

6. I have.

I was 10, attending my cousin's baseball game. The Klan was there, in full regalia, handing out flyers about "race purity and the shifty lies of the Jew media". I stood their, mouth agape, as they handed me a flyer and invited me to a rally. My mother saw them approaching me, and after hiding her Star of David necklace, grabbed me and took me back to the stands. Oh yeah, I am Jewish.

[awoke_in_2003]

11. Wow. nt

[cvoogt]

7. my one and only time

was during a MLK march in downtown Atlanta, ca. 1995. The Klan was there to counter-protest the MLK parade, in full kookoo regalia.

[3catwoman3]

8. Unless it is October 31st, any activity that

...requires the wearing of strange costumes, and the hiding of your face while participating in it, is something that adults should not be doing.

[lindysalsagal]

19. So hard to believe that a 2016 presidential candidate is willing to dredge this up just to win

Will we, as a nation, ever stop this bigotry?

[Abouttime]

20. The republican party now owns this

The kkk is now a yoke around their neck, they are the party of the klan

[lindysalsagal]

21. and even sadder, they're proud of it. No remorse or guilt about their bigotry.

The so-called religious party has no conscience.