A Closed Sign
I recall a time when I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. We have a home on the Chesapeake in Cecil County, Maryland. I had heard this area is a center of Klan Country but that awareness was not on top of mind on this particular day. The town nearest our home, North East, is ten miles up the road. The town has a community park with a pavilion where I was reading at one of the picnic tables. The book I had in hand was Race Matters by Cornel West. He is an African American scholar who is pictured prominently on the front cover. He appears to be coming right off the book cover. He was an intense guy and his captivating book is as relevant now as it was during the time that it was written.
I was engrossed in the substance of the book and became aware that there were a number of pickup trucks equipped with gun racks holding guns in the parking lot. I went back to reading until it dawned on me that there were a group of white men staring at me with looks of anger and disbelief. I had stumbled into the middle of a Klan meeting. I think they were as surprised as I was. “That white guy must be crazy!” they likely thought.
There were a couple of racial epithets spoken my way. I didn’t think it would be a good time to share with them how race should matter in America. I didn’t think we could even have had a conversation to agree to disagree. Discretion seemed to be the better point of valor. I quietly made my way to my car with a quick step and was relieved to be driving away. I think they were so dumbfounded that they were relieved as well.
What I have learned is that racism or any of the “isms”, for that matter, are both taught and caught.
There is a powerful dynamic that bonds the Klan together. They have a common perceived enemy so they create strong bonds by pushing others out of who they deem as unacceptable. They have their own immoral code which makes sense to them but doesn't make sense to anyone outside of the group. They have a shared purpose to promote white supremacy. The group enables them to increase their individual self esteem while at the same time creating a sense of belonging to something that they believe has a larger purpose. They feel "I may be inferior but we as a group are magnificent". Their actions make bad intentioned people worse because of the power of increased numbers.
A quick historical analysis of the rise of Hitler contain the same group dynamics as those that promote the Klan.
Comments