The Klan and racism live on, but there is hope

By on April 23, 2009.
Saved under News

Some say the Ku Klux Klan is a relic of the past but the Klan still holds rallies in nearby Franklin County and still tries to march in parades in Carroll County. The photos at the left are not from old issues of Life Magazine but a new photo essay on the Life.Com web site.

Some say racism is no longer a problem in this nation but recent studies show racism is actually on the rise since the election of America’s first African-American President. Earlier this year, ABC News filmed an experiment to see if racism still runs in our society. What they found was shocking:

It was 6:30 a.m. on a Friday in downtown Linden, N.J., when two Hispanic day laborers were struggling with their English as they tried to order a coffee and a sandwich at a deli.

But rather than getting served, they got a string of insults hurled at them from the clerk behind the counter. Their broken-English request for food was met with a barrage of racist remarks, including, "Get back in your pickup truck with the rest of your family."

This scene wasn’t real. It was all part of a "What Would You Do?" experiment designed to find out what action, if any, bystanders would take after watching the men’s exchange with the clerk.

Seth Perlman, the manager of All Aboard Bagel and Deli, agreed to ABC News’ using his business to test people’s reactions to bigotry. The racist cashier standing next to him was an actor hired by ABC News, as were his victims.

Here in this working-class neighborhood 15 miles west of New York City, people have a reputation for tolerance. But, sometimes, the reactions were far less open-minded than one would expect.

In the face of blatant discrimination, many people seemed immobilized, some too stunned to react. After being turned away by the cashier, one of the day laborers asked a nearby customer for help. She suggested that he try another store down the street. Many other customers had a similar reaction, quietly walking away after being solicited to help.

Although some customers seemed indifferent, others were quite willing to let everyone know exactly how they felt.

Upon hearing the cashier’s racist attacks on the day laborers, customer Darick Maxis, a black man, seemed to take the side of the clerk.

"If you want me to make you leave, I’ll make you leave," he told the Hispanics. "So leave. That’s all I gotta say. Leave!"

When ABC News’ John Quinones approached the scene and let him know the exchange was a television experiment, Maxis continued his rant.

"You know what I think?" he asked. "I think they’re taking our jobs because we ain’t got no jobs."

Racism is not limited to whites against blacks. It is white against latin and black against latin. The fear and hatred that some feel against blacks is also aimed at other ethnic groups.

But they may be hope. Writes columnist David Squires at the Hampton Roads Daily Press:

They are tired.

They are fed up.

They are not going to take it anymore!

The black man’s new ally is actually a very old friend: white people.

All the celebration and euphoria about a black family in the White House has nearly overlooked the keys to the historic November victory and the only realistic path toward equality.

In the most recent election, 47 percent of white voters cast their ballots for Barack Obama. Still not a majority, you say? Well, it was 17 points higher than the number of whites who voted for the previous Democrat chap who was up for president.

More and more, white people are growing sick and tired of this country being taken away from everyday working folks, and more and more, they are rearing their heads and raising their voices.

One of the strongest voices, and one of the most widely circulated on the Internet, comes from Andrew M. Manis, an associate professor of history at Macon State College in Georgia.

Writing in December for one of my former employers, the Macon Telegraph, Manis bellowed:

"For much of the last 40 years, ever since America ‘fixed’ its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, ‘When are African Americans finally going to get over it?’ Now I want to ask: ‘When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?’"

Manis goes on to decry the hundreds of threats and race crimes spurred by the election of a black president and said these occurrences "should frighten and infuriate every one of us."

Then he went on to ask: "How long before we white people realize we can’t make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can — once and for all — get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior?"

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3 Responses to The Klan and racism live on, but there is hope

  1. Jonny Jackson May 8, 2009 at 8:49 pm

    I find this entry interesting considering your most recent entry about how we should always follow the law even if that law is wrong. I suppose you would have been against the integration of the schools back in the 1950s right?

    In your infinite wisdom you think we should respect law over what’s right. And that those who don’t are “stupid.” I guess you think Rosa Parks was “stupid” too?

    And yes, I think that comparison is apt. Especially considering that marijuana was first made illegal in the 1930s through racist scaremongering. The government was lying about marijuana back then, and they’ve never stopped lying about it since.

    You sir have greatly disrespected a large portion of the Floyd County community. If you are so quick to judge others for their actions then you can now rightly expect others to judge you for your response.

    Everyone has the right to know that you are the guy who so callously cheered on Stephanie Shortt as she steals the property of a local Floyd County resident who has never done anything to hurt anyone. You have the right to judge and we have the right to judge you back. The law is wrong now just as it was wrong then.

    The disgusting “war on drugs” is a war on a certain way of life. You may say that’s different than a law against black people, but I say it’s a law against “hippies” and it’s every bit as bad to me. These heartless people (Stephanie Shortt and company) are stealing land and throwing innocent people in jail and they deserve no respect for what they are doing and neither do you.

  2. Doug Thompson May 9, 2009 at 9:09 am

    Jonny:

    I was in favor of integration in the 1950s because it was both right and the law of the land. The Supreme Court legalized integration in 1954 with the historic Brown v. The Board of Education ruling. The first photograph I sold to a newspaper was of a Klan rally in 1959 in Prince Edward County, Virginia: A lawless county where the Klan-controlled school board and board of supervisors closed the public schools in defiance of the federal law legalizing integration.

    When an adult makes a conscious decision to violate the law then that adult must also be willing to face the consequences when caught violating that law — be it running a stop sign, speeding, robbing a convenience store or manufacturing illegal drugs for distribution. If you want the law changed, use the legislative process to change it. Campaign for and elect state representatives who believe in your causes.

    But I will never join a campaign to legalize drugs — any drug — because I have seen firsthand what use of drugs can do to a person. As a recovering alcoholic, I stood up in a room 14 years, 11 months and three days ago and admitted I was an addict. I work with drug abusers on a regular basis and I see firsthand what abuse of all kinds of drugs — including marijuana — can do to those who use them and those around them. I have worked with — and counseled — marijuana users whose dependence on the drug is as great as tobacco, alcohol or cocaine.

    As USA Today reported in 2007:

    Tyreol Gardner first smoked marijuana when he was 13.

    "The main reason I tried it was curiosity," Gardner recalls. "I wanted to see what it felt like."

    He liked what it felt like, and by age 15, he was smoking pot every week. He supported his habit with the money his parents gave him for getting straight A’s on his report card. They didn’t have a clue.

    "By 16, when I got my license, it turned into a fairly everyday thing," says Gardner, now 24. "I believe it is very addictive, especially for people with addictive personalities."

    Millions of baby boomers might disagree. After all, they smoked marijuana — the country’s most popular illicit drug — in their youth and quit with little effort.

    But studies have shown that when regular pot smokers quit, they do experience withdrawal symptoms, a characteristic used to predict addictiveness. Most users of more addictive drugs, such as cocaine or heroin, started with marijuana, scientists say, and the earlier they started, the greater their risk of becoming addicted.

    Those who support legalization of the drug claim it is non-addictive and harmless but most scientific studies do not support that myth. I deal with people whose dependence on the drug is so strong that they cannot function without smoking grass at least daily, sometimes several times a day and any attempt to stop brings on withdrawal symptoms.

    Reports MarijuanaAddiction.info:

    Marijuana is both emotionally and mentally addictive. Once an individual becomes addicted to marijuana it develops into part of who they believe themselves to be. Avoiding their friends who do not use, the addict will gravitate to others that do. Marijuana is a topic that is always on their mind, whether it be thinking about the next time they will be able to get high or where their going to get their next sack. When someone is addicted to marijuana eventually their friends and the people close to them only know how they act when their stoned because they no longer do anything without first smoking. Their constant abuse is due to the misconception that marijuana is what they need to solve their problems. Sometimes addicts will take their stash with them wherever they go, just in case an opportunity arises and they are able to take a couple hits. They may even go through several dealers in order to make sure they always have a constant supply of marijuana.

    The cost of marijuana addiction to the individual who allows their addiction to escalate may suffer health and social consequences, memory and learning problems, problems at work or even result in losing a job because of high absenteeism. Those who isolate themselves from friends and family often put a heavy strain on relationships with loved ones. There is a vicious cycle to marijuana addiction in which these problems are often used as a rational to smoke even more pot. Marijuana addiction is a no-win situation that many unintentionally fall into (the drug that is causing the problem becomes the solution to the problem it caused).

    Addiction to marijuana is severe due to its affect on the user’s brain. Scientists now know many facts about marijuana’s effect on the body and how delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the major active chemical in Marijuana, acts in the human brain. When marijuana is smoked, THC travels quickly through the body and into the brain where it unites with specific receptors on nerve cells. Areas of the brain with the most receptors affected by THC are parts of the brain that control pleasure, thought, memory, sensory, concentration, time perception, and coordination. It’s these areas of the brain that are most likely to be affected when an individual faces marijuana addiction.

    As RecoveryConnection.Org puts it:

    Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States and long-term marijuana use can lead to addiction and demand marijuana detox. These marijuana-addicted individuals use the drug compulsively which often interferes with family relationships, school attendance and grades, work performance, and recreational activities. Individuals with cannabis dependence may also persist in using the drug despite knowing that it can cause them problems associated with their heart or lungs and psychological problems, such as excessive sedation due to high doses.

    I have no qualms or hesitations about "disrepecting" — as you put it — those who support the manufacture and distribution of an illegal drug. I have no qualms about supporting law enforcement officials who agressively pursue those who manufacture and distribute drugs. None at all. I believe those who abuse drugs should be helped and those who manufacture illegal drugs should be punished.

  3. Jonny Jackson May 9, 2009 at 4:24 pm

    Comparing crimes that cause real harm to people with the “crime” of growing pot is absolutely ridiculous.

    And you can keep posting all of that nonsense from anti-marijuana legalization websites, we all know that is nothing but propaganda.

    You can make the same kind of claims that these people make about marijuana about anything including junk food. Bad eating habits are far more dangerous to the public’s health than marijuana yet you don’t see the government making McDonalds illegal.

    The young people of today know that marijuana is not the dangerous drug you and others of your time keep saying it is. And they will change these horrible laws that take away that which is most sacred: FREEDOM.