I actually feel sorry for the old 50's and 60's era KKK. These people were so blinded by hate they could not see that what they were doing was evil. This does not mean that they should be punished for their crimes. The living ones must wake up every day now with all sorts of tormenting thoughts about the way the world is now and try agitate, yell, and scream things such as "don't you understand-- a is president" and fewer and fewer people are are listening to them.

I hate the warped racist teachings of the LDS church that ended my engagement but the people people who are in the thrall of such nonsense should be pitied, not hated. I can never forgive them but hating them would be a waste of my time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2011 01:50PM by Susan I/S.

I have a lot of disgust for any racist group, particularly the KKK, because of their views on mixed race people. (I'm 3 different races and fucking proud of my heritage.)

It's amusing that they consider themselves the "master race," because if you've ever met or saw a bunch of them, they're a mass of ignorant, inbred, vulgar, and foolish people.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2011 09:13AM by itzpapalotl.

and they like feeling superior to those they hate. Also, they think that pitying someone who is happy with who they are will shame or shock them into changing.

Not saying you're in that mindset, only that I've seen it in extensively with mormons.

Howcome garments don't have hoods???????

The KKK are bullies, thieves, murderers and rapists of the worst kind. They deserve no respect. I almost wish I believed in hell, because that is where they belong. When you cross the line and take away the human rights of others, then you don't deserve any human rights yourself.

Being from the state of MS, I did grow up never seeing any of the men in the white robes, etc. However, watching a movie "A time to kill" as far as other events/movie/documentaries on tv, the men looked like a bunch of "uneducated rednecks". They even spoke as such. Even though some of it was fiction you know that's how it really was. Not only did they want or demand "control" over the other race(s) they treated their wives, as well as children w/dismay and somewhat fear. And if you noticed the wife/kids would be "very obediant" for the most part during that era.

I remember moving to Jackson, MS, in the late 70s and being stunned to see Klansmen in full regalia standing in intersections soliciting $ from passing motorists. Freaked me out.

Meridian is where i grew up, not too far from philadelphia, but when those horrendous murders occured if i'm correct i was probably 3 yrs. of age.

The book Freakonomics is controversial.

But it had some interesting material on Freakonomics.

The authors said that the Klan was basically an MLM scam, meant to dupe poor, ignorant whites out of their money.

The Klan did not even deliver their "Product" of terrorizing blacks. There was no correllation between lynchings and the amount of Klan members.

Klansman paid money to a rich white guy, got to wear funny clothes and go through farcical ceremonies. Hm, what else sounds like that?

If I were to say the KKK doesn't attack black people anymore, and instead provides a brotherhood for people who want a social outlet what would we think? It can even do charitable acts.

I'm guessing most of us would be so appalled by the history and possible racist actions of this group that we would not consider supporting it in any way just because "now they don't do that" or because they claim to be an organization of peace that simply provides ritual, moral guidance, political like-mindedness, etc.

One of their sites says, "The Ku Klux Klan remains relevent[sic] because it has moved on, it deals with the very real here and now, we honor the past by being relevent, meeting the challenges of this century and that is why we remain topical, needed and supported by patriotic Americans." They day they are about freedom of speech, helping white Christian children, yada, yada.

I bring this up because I think we all have different criteria for when an organization should be forgiven for their history. I would no more support the "good" things the KKK might do tomorrow than the Catholic or Mormon church. All have things so despicable in their history that I personally think the organization deserves no support. Instead, more mass movements will rise. Why keep the bad apples alive? Why throw out any bad apples if there is a chance they will produce good seeds?

Other people focus on the good they see and forgive the history. Reading the comments from the OP, it made me consider that I must be faster at washing my hands and cutting my losses than others when it comes to supporting organizations that thrive on participation for survival and change.

Do I pity the KKK guys any more than JS or priests that damaged countless lives? Do I instead cut them slack for the good things they did? It's a personal choice. It explains why someone can be a Catholic and enable the abuse that has been going on for hundreds of years. It explains how someone can be a Mormon and ignore the polygamy problem it created still going on today.

Anyway, just some thoughts I wanted to share. What do we enable when we participate in religion or other voluntary organizations and do the benefits outweigh the drawbacks? Each person has a difference tolerance level that allows them to decide which organizations to keep supporting.

Have KKK publicly and honestly apologized and renounced their despicable past??

It seems to me they are still supporting the crimes commited in the past. They still deserve no respect. And likewise with mormonism. Mormons haven't apologized for any of the havoc they have wrecked in people's lives. They try to cover it up, whitewash history instead of acknowledge and apologize. They are just like the new nazis, desperately trying to minimize and downplay the atrocities in the past, but why bother when they ideologically condone what was done?

I am biracial and I've been called all the nasty names you can imagine and then some. Racism is both a tool and a disease. American style racism began in the seventeenth century as a means to allow white masters to keep their offspring with black African slave women enslaved and to keep the white English bonded indentured serfs from combining with black people to conspire against them. People are not born racist--it is either given to them by their parents or they adopt it on their own or both -- despite what they are told by the outside world.


Racism is like a disease or addictive drug used as an emotional crutch. When I encounter rabidly racist people I wonder what is wrong with them and what can drive them to such insane madness. Just take a look at the pictures of Emmett Till in his casket after being beaten to death and drowned. He never got any justice. The men who killed and tortured him should have been executed. If we are ever to eliminate racism we have to understand it.


Those of you who have left the church should understand what I am speaking of. I know people who had a racist upbringing and to their credit they were able to move beyond that. Some, sadly, cannot --just as you tell stories here about trying to tell your friends or family that the LDS church is build on lies and is a total fraud and yet they won't believe you no matter what you tell them. You probably wonder what is wrong them, too.


Here's a story for you: When I was working in Phoenix a couple of years ago I had to go pick up my truck from a repair shop near Deer Valley Airport. I took the bus and walked the rest of the way. It was getting dark as the sun was going down. Two guys in a lifted black Chevy pickup were passing by and offered me a ride. I didn't have to far to walk so I declined. When they say my tan skin underneath my blonde hair and saw I wasn't %100 white they freaked out and started yelling the n-word. After I picked up my truck I drove back down I-17 to get on the 101 freeway. They followed me back to the highway and started throwing things at my truck whilst yelling the n-word out of the window at 80MPH and almost ran me off the road into a semi truck until I finally got away from them. Hatred is not an excuse to let them off the hook for what they did -- but something was wrong with those guys to make them go out of their way to do that. They were nice boys once. Something turned them into what they were.