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Hundred-year-old story of the Klan sounds a lot like Trumpism today
https://www.rawstory.com/klan-racism-trumpism/One hundred years ago, a 21-part expose on the Klan was published in The New York World, exposing the ideology of the group and shocking a nation. Writing Sunday, New York Times columnist Charles Blow noted that the story was such a sensation that at least 18 other papers around the United States ran the stories. People even lined up to get the next installment.
"But, as I read through that coverage to write this column, I was struck by just how resilient Klan ideology has been in the years since The World exposed the group's systems and rituals; its ideas have been repackaged and dressed up — or, disrobed, as it were — but the core tenets remain the same," wrote Blow. "I was even struck by how many of the same tactics are still being used to preserve white supremacy and subjugate racial, ethnic and religious minorities in this country."
"It proves to me that Klan thinking is not really about the organization itself or its tactics — the night riding or cross burning — but about the very meaning of America and who controls it," he said.
He mentioned the hate and oppression that flowed through the history. According to the expose, by the 1920s the Klan had moved on from exclusively anti-Black hate to anti-Jew, anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant and others.
"That is not dissimilar from today, when xenophobia and Islamophobia have taken a more prominent role," Blow wrote.
"But, as I read through that coverage to write this column, I was struck by just how resilient Klan ideology has been in the years since The World exposed the group's systems and rituals; its ideas have been repackaged and dressed up — or, disrobed, as it were — but the core tenets remain the same," wrote Blow. "I was even struck by how many of the same tactics are still being used to preserve white supremacy and subjugate racial, ethnic and religious minorities in this country."
"It proves to me that Klan thinking is not really about the organization itself or its tactics — the night riding or cross burning — but about the very meaning of America and who controls it," he said.
He mentioned the hate and oppression that flowed through the history. According to the expose, by the 1920s the Klan had moved on from exclusively anti-Black hate to anti-Jew, anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant and others.
"That is not dissimilar from today, when xenophobia and Islamophobia have taken a more prominent role," Blow wrote.
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This is Suffolk County, about 20 miles from NYC. It's eastern end, where I lived, was still close enough to see the World Trade Center and other NYC skyscrapers poking above the horizon in places that had an unobstructed view.
They were ousted 2 and a half years later, in November 1926. The church supporting them wasn't evangelicals, it was Methodists (and probably other Protestant denominations, but the Methodists were prominent).
They were against Jews and Catholics. Given that my family's Irish Catholic, I'm at least sure that I don't have any hoods in the family's attics.
