The KKK Still Around, Really?

Can someone, for the life of me, explain why in the FUCK are the Ku Klux Klan still in existence in 2017?

Yet, when we had the Black Panther Party, the Federal Government had no problem shutting them down. None whatsoever.

So what is it about the KKK, then, I wonder? What is it about them that warrants such a lack of urgency and aggression from the FBI, state, and local police agencies nationwide?

The KKK is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and a domestic terrorist group by other organizations. Did you know there have been THREE incarnations of the KKK in this country? I just recently discovered that.

The first KKK emerged in 1865 (at the end of the Civil War) and terrorized freed blacks (and white abolitionists) with widespread violence to suppress the black vote in state elections. Fortunately, this group died out in 1871.

The second KKK sprang up in 1915 (and boomed in the early-to-mid 1920's with 3 to 6 million members) before it, too, died out in 1944.

After a two year absence, the third, and current, KKK surfaced in 1946, adding neo-fascism and neo-Nazism to their rhetoric, and they continue on to this day. Southern Whites would have had to fill the roles then held by Blacks - What is forgotten (or people don’t want to remember) is that poor Whites in the South were only marginally above Blacks economically. If the Ku Klux Klan had ever truly ignited a major Holocaust-type situation, Blacks who didn’t die would have fled in the thousands, leaving sharecropping roles and low wage service jobs needing to be filled. At the time, the only other cheap sources of labor were foreign immigrants (who, being ethnic Whites and also Jews and Catholics presented their own problems for Southern racists) and poor Southern Whites as widespread Latino immigration didn’t begin until after WWII. To be blunt, no one was looking to be the new “nigger” so Blacks had to be kept in check and not slaughtered wholesalely.

Wealthy Southern Whites would have intervened - While they also despised Blacks themselves, they also knew that a Reconstruction-style backlash would result if the Klan’s actions got too far out of hand. This would result in their property potentially being seized as well as federal troops being sent to the South to put down unrest. Better that the occasional beating or lynching take place rather than a widespread pogrom.

Most Southern Whites weren’t (and even today) still aren't sociopaths. As long as Blacks “stayed in their place” they didn’t want to see them injured or killed. While a mindset such as that would be viewed as being vilely prejudiced today, for that time period that mindset was considered decent enough to know right from wrong and that murdering Blacks in mass numbers outside of rare occasions (i.e. Tulsa Race Riot of 1921) was beyond the norm, even in the South.

There was always the very real threat that Blacks would fight back and what is forgotten a lot of the time is that during the Jim Crow era, there were a sizable number of Blacks in many communities. Some of which were ones where they outnumbered Whites. If the KKK had stepped too far out of line, there was the very real prospect of Blacks (who were armed, as it wasn’t against the law) fighting back and killing a number of Whites in defense of these communities. White community leaders kept the Klan in check in many areas simply so that reprisals by Blacks would not occur.

So there was never going to be the “race war” that fantasists and hate group leaders predicted, simply because such an event would have served noone in power’s interest. It would have led to poor Whites dropping further down the scale in social status and it would have provoked (justified) reprisals by Blacks.

Nowadays, the KKK hides behind the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment (the right of free speech and freedom of assembly) that protect it from prosecution. The First Amendment also affords the KKK protection BY the government - states AND federal - as both entities are largely unwilling to prosecute White hate groups as effectively as they would minority ones.

When one asks why the KKK hates Blacks so much?

The answer is simple. Because blacks are the most prominent minority in the US - not financially (we're broke as hell compared to Whites and Asians, yet still the richest collection of black people globally) - but our 'manufactured' culture is extremely consummable to the world at large.

Ebonics (street slang)...

Rock & Roll (originated by blacks)...

Hip-Hop (turntablism, street and break dancing, graffitti...originated by blacks)... our obssession with high-end, flashy jewelry (funny, yet, tragic when you remember how many of our ancestors wore chains too)...

The addictive clothing style of the black man in the late 90's through to about the mid 2000's...

The staggering sex appeal of the black woman (voluptuous curves galore...which is later culturally misappropriated by white women like Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and many others thanks to social media). I could go on...and so on and so on.

From 1619 to the present day, for 398 years, white man's ideology has preached our inferiority to the masses across all continents. However, the advent, and presence, of successful and powerful Blacks creates cognitive dissonance, because it conflicts with that ideology.

So there may be a remnant of this sort of thinking, that we have evolved that is innate, to be wary of those that differ from us. First, there is the observable difference between people that creates the ‘race’ construct initially.

Second, there is the history of America as a collection of slave colonies, and being ‘black’ is how they determined if you were a slave or not. For example, in regard to slave status, you have to be denigrated as a ‘black’ person, and hate groups rose up from the 'superior white male' demographic to maintain that separation. There would be a minority of people who were harmed by them. But generally, it's the scapegoat situation. They take all the evil they themselves have and place it on black people. Then they believe they are justified in hating them. This is also what people do to justify abusing their children. They ‘demonize’ and vilify them so they mistreat the black person.

If you've never heard of "group likability," allow me to explain. Simply put: We, as people, tend to like other people who are in our "in-groups." The more "in-groups" people share with us, the more we are likely to like someone.

For example: Tommy, a white guy, walks into an Irish dive of a pub. He sits at the bar with a couple of other patrons. One patron, Pat, has a MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN hat on and an Irish tattoo on his left forearm. He sees Tommy and wonders if he is a Trump supporter and asks, "Hey! Does this hat offend you?...Tommy looks at Pat's hat, then chuckles, and says, "Its better than the alternative pal," Pat smiles and says, "You know what? You're alright!" They clang glasses and laugh the rest of the night over ex-wives, shitty kids, and affirmative action.

Tommy and Pat understand each other because they know exactly what it's like to go through the human experiment that is life as working-class white men.

Not so long ago, humankind was roaming the lands in nomadic tribes, and we had group likeability concerns then as well. But, of course, theirs involved a lot less bullshit than ours ever will.

"Our tribe good, other tribe bad." - Thog from 10,000 B.C

Thog breaks it down with six words and that is, essentially, what the first Klansmen said to the thirteen American colonies and themselves to reason the creation of their terrorist faction. What they failed to understand then, and now, is that Blacks aren't going anywhere, because there is nowhere for us to go to. Africa is not our home (thanks to early European exploration). Once upon a time it was, but that time has long since passed. And seceding from the North didn't work in 1860s and won't work now. So when they say,"GET OUTTA MY COUNTRY!" and "GO BACK TO AFRICA!", such bursts of vitriol clearly depict how ridiculous and out-of-touch they are and have always been. Because the truth of the matter is, "YOUR ANCESTORS TOOK OUR ANCESTORS AND BROUGHT US HERE...WE THOUGHT IT WAS JUST A FREE BOAT RIDE...IDIOTS!"

Eventually, the US Government will need to do something about the KKK. When compared to the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam, they've committed far more acts of violence and terrorism than their black counterparts ever have (one of which was wiped out in the 70's and the other remaining relatively silent since the turbulent 60's).

America, however, only ever acts (or reacts) AFTER something terrible happens.

Maybe when the next 'Dylan Roof' bombs, say...an entire school of black children...will we see a concentrated government effort to seek, and destroy, the pedagogues and cowards who preach and teach the fanning of the flames of hate.

Maybe.