Ku Kluk Klan Is Trying To Make A Comeback In 2016 AKA The Worst Year Of All Time
"The Klan is trying to reshape itself for a new era." That is an actual quote from a current news story alluding to the Ku Klux Klan, the white supremacist group that killed and terrorized minorities up until its dissolution in the 1960s. Yes, the Klan is trying to stage a comeback in 2016, AKA The Worst Year In The History Of Time.
In an age where the world looks like it's falling a part and there's the possibility that Donald Trump could become the President of the United States, what better time to rebrand the KKK than now? As AP News reports, the Klan is still setting crosses ablaze and leaving leaflets in suburban neighborhoods from the Deep South to the Northeast, because we live in the early 1900s and don't have a black president that's served two terms.
But it's all good! This KKK has toned down drastically from its bombing, lynching and shooting predecessors. They have rules against violence (whoo!) They no longer care about blocking minority rights but stopping immigration (yay!) Finally, a progressive Klan that we can all be comfortable with, right?
Fortunately, there doesn't seem to be any real traction. Although some leaders claim to have thousands of members in their own Klan chapters, groups that keep track of KKK activity state that's not the case at all. Mark Potok, who's a part of the Southern Poverty Law Center, estimates that the Klan has about 190 chapters nationally with no more than 6,000 members total. Stated as a mathematical average, that's about 32 members per chapter. Whether you look at the local or national level, the Klan's numerical strength is nothing compared to the millions of members who were part of the organization in the 1920s.
"The idea of unifying the Klan like it was in the '20s is a persistent dream of the Klan, but it's not happening," Potok says.
None of this is surprising. The KKK was the subject of W. Kamau Bell's premiere episode of United Shades Of America, where he actually stood alongside Klan members as they burned a cross. The show aired earlier this year.
Reading this now in 2016 is just as hilarious as it is sad: a bunch of white men yelling "White Power" in white robes, stuck in a past America that has left them behind. Maybe it's time to hang up those $145.00 robes (yes, their robes cost US $145) and just accept that America has changed for the better, guys.
