Last night, Discovery aired KKK: Beneath the Hood, a documentary that purported to offer previously unavailable access to various Ku Klux Klan chapters. Such unveiling feels like an act of desperation for a dying breed of people who are irrationally fixated on racial purity and white supremacy while claiming that they don't hate anyone. Bigotry is alive, of course, but I wonder how well it is when even the Klan is too cowardly to own up to its hatred. (Note: Hamilton Nolan's "My Kasual Kountry Weekend With the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" Gawker story from last year touches on this very phenomenon.)
In the clip above, they hand out sandwiches and various household items in Missouri to show what good guys they are. Basically, they are preying on the impoverished to reseed their losing agenda. Great guys. Nonetheless, their plan seems to work — the few people that turn out for the event, including the police, seem delighted. To put the philosophy of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan into perspective, Imperial Wizard Frank Ancona explains to the cops, "You got different types of birds like crows, sparrows. They stay with their own kind. But they're all birds. So that's kind of our view on it."
The organization that takes its social cues from birds. Maybe one day they'll figure out how to turn a twig into a tool. And then you'll be sorry that you didn't join when you had the chance.