The one time I saw the Ku Klux Klan in person, I was also dressed in all white. I was about 10 years old. My father had taken me to the University of Georgia Golf Course for my first round there. We came up from Macon. And the Varsity was the typical out-of-towner treat for us, too. The Klan was outside the Varsity. I don’t know why they gathered there. But I remember others being there, too, shouting at them. It was so long ago that it feels like a weird dream. In fact, I asked my dad about it again this past week. “I didn’t dream the Klan thing, did I?” “No,” he said. “You didn’t.” He didn’t remember any real details. My main memory was that I wore white shorts and a white-collar shirt to play golf. I remember the feeling of “I’m not with these guys” regarding my all-white attire. I felt horribly uncomfortable.
I thought about that day again this past week as white supremacists marched with torches and chanted “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, and a woman was murdered in a terrorist attack on those protesting the white-pride rally, and modern America descended into something weirder and worse in spirit than I’ve ever seen. I thought back on that day at the Varsity as a child and remembered the feeling of “will someone think I’m with the Klan?” And when I think about such stuff now, I feel this one thing very strongly: If we don’t speak up against the wrong things, we risk being confused with them. If we are quiet in the face of what’s clearly wrong, we risk condoning it.
The notion of racial supremacy is rat poison of the soul. It kills both those it targets and those who administer the poison. It is wrong morally, socially, personally, spiritually. It is a human tragedy when it takes root in a wide sense. And we are watching it take new roots in America. Now is not the time to be meek and submissive to those things. I’m not talking about fighting violence with violence. I’m talking about acknowledgement of what is right and what is wrong, even if it’s uncomfortable.
Tying a person’s worth or lack of value to skin pigmentation is to bathe ourselves in a type of human mental excrement. When too many people cling to such tribalism, we act primitive, mean and stupid. Basic worth is inherent in each of us. If we pray to God, then what God are we summoning if we believe he created some more worthy of life than others? If we believe in a God who values certain flesh over others, then it’s not a God we’re seeking, but a devil.
We’re facing some hard times now. We’re seeing an infection that has festered too long. The angry pus-filled culture boil has popped. This sickness is running deep in us. Once hatred is released from its leash, then people of all political persuasions will go too far. That’s a given.
President Trump is like I was that day at the Varsity. He is wearing all white. He has played to this group of white supremacists. They love him. They took his “from many sides” comment as affirmation of their cause — that they were on morally solid ground, just one side of a two-sided argument, and not the vomiting up of an ancient evil in the throat of modern man. In fact, I think this was sort of a litmus test for this new openly racist movement. Will the president condemn us if we go without hoods and form a new type of Klan and march openly? Trump has certainly not been reluctant to condemn those he sees as in the wrong. He unleashed rhetorical (and perhaps literal) bombs on Kim Jong Un.
But it was very telling that he wasn’t emotionally moved enough to unleash fury on the white supremacists for invoking his name on misguided and morally repugnant principles. If I was in that position, I would feel desperate to disavow myself of any connection to a cause that hurled a vehicle into a crowd and killed a young woman. If you promote white supremacy in my name, I would yell, “No! No! No!” I would scream from the podium, “I am not with these guys! They are wrong and their ideas are a cancer on human hearts.” There would be no ambiguity. And I am deeply disappointed to watch someone stand in the world’s greatest office and fail to be hit with the fury that seems essential in the moment. His speech Monday was a prepared statement after political heat. His true emotions are off the cuff and in Tweets. This lack of a filter endears him to so many and repulses others. But we all know to look for the Tweets or the impromptu remarks, not the prepared speeches, when we want an idea of what he’s really thinking. I wonder if any white supremacists felt stung by his Monday statements. I’m skeptical.
There are so many things to say. And yet, all talk seems futile. Writing a column like this feels as weighty to me as a gnat in a hurricane. It doesn’t feel like it makes much difference. But there are times where I want to be on a side — not partisan, but moral. I know it’s morally right to speak for equality and against promotion of one skin pigmentation over another. I’m flabbergasted that our nation seems to be backpedaling on something so significant.
We want America to be simple and good. It has so much good. It truly does. But it’s anything but simple. And our nation has always had two competing stories. We are the shining example of individual liberty, “the land of the free and home of the brave,” “the melting pot,” where “all men are created equal” and we can all realize “the American Dream” if we have enough gumption. We rushed to the rescue in two world wars. We can look at our flag and think of high ideals, courage and sacrifices that back up that powerful symbol.
This is one story. It holds a lot of truth.
There is a second story. It also holds a lot of truth.
We are also a nation founded on the extermination of a native people, and on slavery, and on the fact that “all men are created equal” was a terrible lie, at least until the Civil Rights Act corrected this original sin under the law. We have progressed for sure, but we have never shed the difficulties and differences that were born out of our original sins, which yes, were committed by this nation’s founders, who were, yes, also brilliant in many ways that deserve reverence. As I said, it’s complicated. But the narratives are not mutually exclusive. They both hold a lot of truth. And fierce adherence to one national narrative at the expense of the other opens you up to a blindness and pure team loyalty, which is a seed for hatred, which is a fuel that can be poured on everything and set afire. And today’s blaze is bright and real.
In these times, be the firefighter, not the arsonist.
We’re going to need a lot of firefighters.
Zach Mitcham is editor of The Madison County Journal.
To comment, visit The Madison County Journal Facebook page or send a letter to the editor with your first and last name and town of residence to zach@mainstreetnews.com.
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