“Freed but disenfranchised, emancipated but still in chains, balked by law and brutal custom from full participation in society, the Southern blacks also made handy targets to divert the anger and dissatisfaction of the "poor white trash" from the elites that exploited them as well, albeit less severely. If even the poorest white man could consider himself superior to someone, if you could keep him tied up in psychological and emotional knots about inferior darkies messing with his women, going to his schools, sitting at his lunch counters, drinking from his water fountains, swimming in his public pools, living in his neighborhoods, why then he'd never make common cause with his black brothers and sisters in poverty to fight for a better life.”
The whole idea of the KKK was simply to keep the poor, undereducated white folk too busy acting “better than” to ever become aware of their own disenfranchisement. Look at that black man looking at a white woman not at what the real Boss is doing to his pocket book. It seems that simple minds, courtesy of our public school system, has been well worth the money for the ruling class. The same can be said for the Religious (sounding) Reich, point to someone worshipping God differently, instant distraction from the shrinking paycheck. Best of all, you can do it in a 30 second sound bite. In America, the only history that doesn’t start with Monday morning’s New York Times, is the bigotry that lives in too many hearts.
A quick aside. Thanks to Jon Steward and Steven Colber(t) I can get through all this political bile. Tim Robbin’s appearance on Steve’s show tonight had me not just laughing out loud but actually clapping for his performance, while sitting alone at home! We’re going to need our humor in the Halliburton Camps if they manage to steal this next election also.
Now, into the circle file...
