Latest news with #Klan
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Contributor: In an era that celebrates cruelty, embrace subversive kindness
In 1925, 25,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. Never before had so many men in white sheets descended on the nation's capital, their 'invisible empire' becoming visible. The Klan's far-flung ranks are estimated to have numbered 4 million. Fourteen years later, a pro-Nazi rally at New York's Madison Square Garden drew 20,000. The hosting organization, the German American Bund, actively supported Hitler and his 'leader principle,' or Führerprinzip, by which a single leader has absolute power. Though not explicitly pro-Hitler, the isolationist America First Committee was also surging. In 1941, America First found a spokesperson in the famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, who accused Jews of conspiring to lead the U.S. into World War II. Fascism almost 'happened here,' to riff on the title of Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel 'It Can't Happen Here,' about the anti-democratic forces threatening America in the lead-up to the Second World War. Why didn't it? Well, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and Germany declared war on the United States. These events spurred the public to support the war effort. Then, when American troops went overseas, they witnessed firsthand what fascist regimes were doing to civilians on the streets and in concentration camps, and Americans wrote home about the atrocities. The press and film industry also exposed the brutality. Americans generally didn't like what they saw, and protofascist movements in the U.S. were forced underground. Now murmurs from the sewer can be heard again. Not just on social media but in public discourse. It looks as if the decades of relatively stable democracy following the war were not a change in our history but a temporary interlude. And I fear that a critical guardrail is gone. If Americans were once revolted by the aesthetics of fascism, in today's era of mass content consumption, many now appear to be entertained. How else to explain the 94,000 likes of a video, posted by the White House's official X account, of migrants being chained without due process and put on an airplane? The post included a caption bearing the hashtag '#ASMR,' referring to the pleasurable response to auditory or visual stimuli — implying that some in the audience would be soothed by seeing such cruelty. It would be more apt to caption the video '#TorturePorn.' And how to explain the 32,000 likes of a posed photo of Rep. Riley Moore ( in which the congressman is giving thumbs up outside a cell at the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, where individuals are being held indefinitely after being detained in the U.S. without due process? If I had any doubts about my compatriots' appetite for human suffering, these were put to rest with the news that the Department of Homeland Security is considering a reality show in which immigrants compete for U.S. citizenship. While Secretary Kristi Noem has not yet approved the program, the fact that a producer would even float such a dehumanizing premise speaks to the public's appetite for exploitation. The American people apparently do not merely rely on migrants to pick our crops and build our homes; we also expect to be entertained by their struggles. What is there to do when swaths of the public are no longer horrified, but rather titillated, by the imagery of the far right? What hope is there when the prospect of ICE agents storming workplaces and neighborhoods makes so many people giddy? I believe the answer is to promote images of hospitality — that is, images of people embracing prisoners and welcoming those who hail from foreign lands. The antidote to an aesthetics of exploitation is an aesthetics of encounter. The late Pope Francis emblematized the latter. Only two days after the congressman went viral for his thumbs up against a cell block, the pontiff marked Holy Thursday by visiting the Regina Coeli prison in Rome. There he spoke with inmates, prayed with them and blew kisses. If not for his ailing health, he said, he'd have washed inmates' feet, as he's done in the past in accordance with tradition. An American priest, Father James Martin, noted the stark contrast between the West Virginia lawmaker and the pontiff, two Catholics making very different uses of photo opportunities with prisoners. Martin asked in a post on X: 'Which way would Jesus, who was imprisoned, prefer?' Of course, many of us outside the church have our own images and memories of fraternity bridging divides. Having long served in the United State Foreign Service, I was privileged to meet countless people from around the world. Even when we did not share a language, we shared meals. Even when we had no common past, we were able to find common goals. I find myself returning to these experiences and musing about their quiet radicality. There is something powerful about people of different tribes coming together to share a laugh, break bread or simply recognize their shared humanity. Understanding this, I've tried, as a novelist, to write scenes of communion to combat those of violence. As a thriller about infiltrating a white supremacist militia, my next book does not shy away from exposing neo-Nazis' dark libido. But nor does it skimp on expressing hope for peace, celebrating characters who cross racial and cultural lines to become friends and even lovers. At a time when simply by bearing witness to the news each day, Americans mass-consume what amounts to torture porn, we all have a duty to capture and recreate small moments of encounter. Because encounters transform us from the inside out. Francis put it poetically when he wrote that we must resist 'the temptation to build a culture of walls,' whether in our hearts or on our lands. For those 'who raise walls will end up as slaves within the very walls they have built,' he said, and will be 'left without horizons.' Otho Eskin, a playwright and retired diplomat, is the author of the forthcoming novel 'Black Sun Rising.' If it's in the news right now, the L.A. Times' Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
In an era that celebrates cruelty, embrace subversive kindness
In 1925, 25,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. Never before had so many men in white sheets descended on the nation's capital, their 'invisible empire' becoming visible. The Klan's far-flung ranks are estimated to have numbered 4 million. Fourteen years later, a pro-Nazi rally at New York's Madison Square Garden drew 20,000. The hosting organization, the German American Bund, actively supported Hitler and his 'leader principle,' or Führerprinzip, by which a single leader has absolute power. Though not explicitly pro-Hitler, the isolationist America First Committee was also surging. In 1941, America First found a spokesperson in the famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, who accused Jews of conspiring to lead the U.S. into World War II. Fascism almost 'happened here,' to riff on the title of Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel 'It Can't Happen Here,' about the anti-democratic forces threatening America in the lead-up to the Second World War. Why didn't it? Well, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and Germany declared war on the United States. These events spurred the public to support the war effort. Then, when American troops went overseas, they witnessed firsthand what fascist regimes were doing to civilians on the streets and in concentration camps, and Americans wrote home about the atrocities. The press and film industry also exposed the brutality. Americans generally didn't like what they saw, and protofascist movements in the U.S. were forced underground. Now murmurs from the sewer can be heard again. Not just on social media but in public discourse. It looks as if the decades of relatively stable democracy following the war were not a change in our history but a temporary interlude. And I fear that a critical guardrail is gone. If Americans were once revolted by the aesthetics of fascism, in today's era of mass content consumption, many now appear to be entertained. How else to explain the 94,000 likes of a video, posted by the White House's official X account, of migrants being chained without due process and put on an airplane? The post included a caption bearing the hashtag '#ASMR,' referring to the pleasurable response to auditory or visual stimuli — implying that some in the audience would be soothed by seeing such cruelty. It would be more apt to caption the video '#TorturePorn.' And how to explain the 32,000 likes of a posed photo of Rep. Riley Moore ( in which the congressman is giving thumbs up outside a cell at the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, where individuals are being held indefinitely after being detained in the U.S. without due process? If I had any doubts about my compatriots' appetite for human suffering, these were put to rest with the news that the Department of Homeland Security is considering a reality show in which immigrants compete for U.S. citizenship. While Secretary Kristi Noem has not yet approved the program, the fact that a producer would even float such a dehumanizing premise speaks to the public's appetite for exploitation. The American people apparently do not merely rely on migrants to pick our crops and build our homes; we also expect to be entertained by their struggles. What is there to do when swaths of the public are no longer horrified, but rather titillated, by the imagery of the far right? What hope is there when the prospect of ICE agents storming workplaces and neighborhoods makes so many people giddy? I believe the answer is to promote images of hospitality — that is, images of people embracing prisoners and welcoming those who hail from foreign lands. The antidote to an aesthetics of exploitation is an aesthetics of encounter. The late Pope Francis emblematized the latter. Only two days after the congressman went viral for his thumbs up against a cell block, the pontiff marked Holy Thursday by visiting the Regina Coeli prison in Rome. There he spoke with inmates, prayed with them and blew kisses. If not for his ailing health, he said, he'd have washed inmates' feet, as he's done in the past in accordance with tradition. An American priest, Father James Martin, noted the stark contrast between the West Virginia lawmaker and the pontiff, two Catholics making very different uses of photo opportunities with prisoners. Martin asked in a post on X: 'Which way would Jesus, who was imprisoned, prefer?' Of course, many of us outside the church have our own images and memories of fraternity bridging divides. Having long served in the United State Foreign Service, I was privileged to meet countless people from around the world. Even when we did not share a language, we shared meals. Even when we had no common past, we were able to find common goals. I find myself returning to these experiences and musing about their quiet radicality. There is something powerful about people of different tribes coming together to share a laugh, break bread or simply recognize their shared humanity. Understanding this, I've tried, as a novelist, to write scenes of communion to combat those of violence. As a thriller about infiltrating a white supremacist militia, my next book does not shy away from exposing neo-Nazis' dark libido. But nor does it skimp on expressing hope for peace, celebrating characters who cross racial and cultural lines to become friends and even lovers. At a time when simply by bearing witness to the news each day, Americans mass-consume what amounts to torture porn, we all have a duty to capture and recreate small moments of encounter. Because encounters transform us from the inside out. Francis put it poetically when he wrote that we must resist 'the temptation to build a culture of walls,' whether in our hearts or on our lands. For those 'who raise walls will end up as slaves within the very walls they have built,' he said, and will be 'left without horizons.' Otho Eskin, a playwright and retired diplomat, is the author of the forthcoming novel 'Black Sun Rising.'
The Star
11-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Why the KKK is Not OK
CONSIDER this: would you teach children not to play with fire by handing them a lit torch? The logical answer would be a resounding no, given safety considerations and numerous possibilities of how it could go wrong. Hence, this is why I find the viral video involving university students wearing Ku Klux Klan (KKK) robes and the subsequent defence of it by the university extremely perplexing. I first came across the video of students dressed in the KKK's distinctive white-pointed hoods and robes, crosses in hand, on Instagram Reels, where it was shared in a group chat. 'Crazy,' a friend simply remarked. Media coverage and outrage began when the university came to the defence of the situation, saying that their donning of the extremist group's costumes was a class assignment for its 'Contemporary Global and Legal Issues' course. The video in question, according to the statement, featured a reenactment of the historical oppression of the Black community in the United States by the KKK. The gravity of this issue can only be understood through the history of the KKK, the problem with cosplaying them, and the issue's setting within a Malaysian university. The Klan, founded in the 1860s, is a white supremacist group that has long targeted minorities, particularly African Americans, with violence and hate. Their actions peaked during the 1960s Civil Rights movement when they bombed Black churches, murdered activists, and terrorised communities simply for demanding equality. These were actions that were driven by unbridled hate and zero tolerance for anyone deemed different. But history alone cannot justify why wearing the Klan costume should be frowned upon. The contemporariness of this historical group needs to be viewed through nuanced and critical thinking which, ironically, should be taught at the higher education institutions where the incident happened. The KKK stands for real-world atrocities and that legacy has not disappeared. Wearing their symbols today risks demonstrating endorsement like in the case of public figures like Kanye West, who accompanies that with racist tirades on X. Donning these symbols, even unintentionally, can embolden those who still uphold these dangerous beliefs. It is precisely its very recent and relevant history that makes donning the KKK outfit unacceptable. In the same way that we would not don a Nazi outfit, wearing the KKK costume diminishes the gravity of historical atrocities and signals indifference or ignorance toward systemic oppression. The imagery still perpetuates harm to this day. Unlike fictional villains or cultural icons, the KKK and Nazis existed to dehumanise and exterminate; and their outfits are uniforms of hate, not theatrical props. Wearing them regardless of intention is not the same as dressing as a movie character like say, the infamous Darth Vader. It would be easy to slam this take as overly Western or woke (being outraged over something not Malaysian), but that misses the point. As Malaysians, we should care about this not because we are parroting Western sensitivities, but because racism and ignorance know no borders. The ease with which the Klan's imagery was used here reveals troubling gaps in our understanding. Perhaps that is what needs to change urgently. While we are constantly reminded about valuing unity, diversity, and tolerance as Malaysians, our education system rarely encourages youths to critique privilege and power, be it at home or abroad. When race is taught in our education curriculum, it is often done at a very surface level, almost tokenistic inclusion. We avoid discomfort in the name of harmony, but in doing so, we also avoid honesty. We need to teach our students not just to know history but to feel its very weight, and that is done by confronting both foreign atrocities and our painful chapters. Take for example Germany, where teaching about World War II is accompanied by school trips to Holocaust memorials and concentration camps. And on top of that they do not shy away from teaching that Germany was responsible for some of the war's worst atrocities and that the actions of the Nazi regime were inexcusable. At a time when Pusat Komas has documented that 'racism, racial discrimination, and xenophobia occur on a daily basis' across Malaysia's social, economic, and legal landscapes, we need to talk about the ongoing inequities that permeate our institutions today. If we cannot discuss our issues openly, it is no surprise we fail to grasp the significance of others'. Without confronting the roots of racism, exercises meant to 'teach' human rights awareness risk perpetuating exactly the harms they claim to critique. Education should develop not just intellect but also empathy. It should push students to ask uncomfortable questions, challenge power, and see themselves as part of a larger global story. That means moving beyond surface-level awareness to teach the moral implications of history, especially what it means to be complicit and to resist. The KKK is not okay. And if our institutions fail to grasp why, then the problem is not just what our students are wearing – it is what we are not teaching. Student Jonathan Lee traces his writing roots to The Star's BRATs (young journalists) programme, which he has written for since 2016. He is now a Malaysian youth advocate. The views expressed here are solely his own.
Los Angeles Times
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Klan controversy surrounds Fullerton historic home designation
Overlooking Fullerton Stadium, a pistachio-hued Craftsman bungalow first built in 1917 now finds itself at the center of a Klan controversy more than a century later. A narrow Fullerton City Council majority voted on Tuesday to designate the former Hillcrest Drive home of Louis E. Plummer a historical landmark, but not without overriding a dispute over how to do so. An education pioneer, Plummer served as a longtime superintendent of Fullerton High School and Fullerton College. According to a membership list gone missing from the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., he also belonged to the Ku Klux Klan in Orange County during the 1920s. Plummer's name has been the subject of controversy in Fullerton before. In 2020, the Fullerton Joint Union High School District board of trustees voted to remove his name from a Fullerton High School auditorium after an online petition gathered more than 25,000 signatures in support. The year before, President's Advisory Council of Fullerton College decided to take Plummer's portrait down from the campus library. Jose Trinidad Castañeda, a former Buena Park City Councilmember, raised questions about the designation at Tuesday's council meeting in light of the Klan connection. 'Plummer was a notable figure in Fullerton, but also an active member of the KKK,' he said. 'I'm not sure if we're designating the Plummer house with that name… into the historic preservation code. I would want to caution [against] memorializing the name, though I do want to credit the architectural features.' The application for the historical designation lists the property as the 'Louis E. Plummer House' while lauding its Craftsman architecture with Victorian and Revival elements. Plummer lived in the house, built by William Campbell, for a few years before moving to a bigger Fullerton home to accommodate his growing family. Fullerton Councilwoman Shana Charles sought to designate the Hillcrest house without naming it after its controversial first resident. 'I'm glad that we're designating historic landmarks, and it's based on the architecture, but I would like to have a motion where we would approve this petition, but maybe not call that the Louis Plummer home, because that would be what was on the plaque,' she said. Councilmember Nick Dunlap, who had earlier called for a vote to approve the historical designation of the home alongside two others, called Charles' proposal 'unnecessary.' Ernie Kelsey, president of Fullerton Heritage, was invited to speak as council members disagreed on how to designate the house. Kelsey noted that the nonprofit has tried to 'clear Mr. Plummer's name,' especially amid the auditorium debate years prior, though he acknowledged that Plummer associated with Rev. Leon Myers, the Exalted Cyclops of the Orange County Klan at the time, on prohibition raids. 'There's nothing that shows that he was in [the Klan],' Kelsey claimed. 'Nobody can really see this supposed list of his name. We feel that his name has been sullied over the years.' The Fullerton Joint Union High School District disagreed five years ago. It cited a 1979 doctoral dissertation on the Orange County Klan by UCLA history student Christopher Cocoltchos in an agenda item regarding renaming the auditorium. As noted in his research, Cocoltchos used a Klan membership list housed at the Library of Congress, which he called a 'valid and complete catalog' of Klansmen through August 1924. Cocoltchos, who taught history at Western Oregon University, not only identified Plummer as a Klansman using the list, but called him 'a leader in the Myers-led Klan' who joined in 1923. But the list, which fueled the recall of four Klansmen from Anaheim City Council a century ago, went missing in 1982 and hasn't been found since. A list donated to the Anaheim Heritage Center by former Anaheim City Atty. Leo Friis is believed to be a derivative by Library of Congress historians, but is missing a page where Plummer's name would appear alphabetically. In the application to historically designate the Hillcrest house, Fullerton Heritage claimed that 'the accuracy of the list is difficult to ascertain' and later cited an oral history interview where Albert Launer, a former Fullerton city attorney, lauded Plummer as 'one of the finest citizens Fullerton ever had.' TimesOC reviewed the 1968 Launer interview transcript that Cocoltchos also cited in placing Plummer in the Hooded Order. Although there were names, like Plummer's, that Launer did not 'directly associate' with the Klan, he said Plummer 'fit in' as someone preoccupied with protecting youth from vice. Despite Kelsey's comments, some Fullerton council members remained uncomfortable with a plaque that could be construed as a Plummer memorial. '[Plummer] didn't build the house,' Councilmember Ahmad Zahra said. 'He was the first resident, right? 'Could the plaque just state that? It will be more historically accurate.' Zahra asked if council members could vote on the historical designation for each of three houses separately. The first two historical homes — the William N. Rollo House on Whiting Avenue and the Suters House on North Richmond Avenue — passed unanimously. The council split 3-2, as is often the case on contentious issues, on the Hillcrest house. Charles and Zahra voted to designate the house without the Plummer name. Mayor Fred Jung, Councilmember Jaime Valencia and Dunlap voted to keep the name on the forthcoming plaque.
Gulf Today
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
Take it from California's election czar, SAVE Act is a sham
Shirley N. Weber, Tribune News Service In my family, voting isn't just a right — it's a lifeline. My parents were sharecroppers in Arkansas until 1951, when my dad dared stand up to his boss for not paying him a fair wage at the agricultural weigh station. Under threat from the KKK, he left town in a wagon, covered in hay so he wouldn't be discovered. Three months later — after months of threats of violence from the Klan at our home — the rest of our family rode in that same wagon on our way to join him in California. Only when we settled in Los Angeles were my parents able to register to vote, finally free from fear of the violent and deadly retribution that such a simple act would trigger across the Jim Crow South. My family's lived experience facing discrimination and the vigilantes of the South cannot be forgotten, especially now as Congress considers the SAVE Act. The House recently approved the SAVE Act under the guise that it will prevent illegal voting — an issue that is infinitesimally rare but buoyed by baseless narratives. If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the act's true effect would be to disenfranchise millions of voters across the country and in California. Americans must not be fooled by fearmongering and misleading rhetoric. The SAVE Act has one true intent: to silence millions of eligible voters. This effort intentionally targets unserved and underserved populations, anyone who has changed their last name and those serving in our armed forces, to name a few groups who would be affected. This proposal is both undemocratic and unconstitutional. It will not stop there. The bill will serve as a catalyst to unravel decades of hard-fought constitutional rights. You don't have to be born in the Deep South to know this is Jim Crow 2.0. Some of our federal lawmakers are trying to steal our right to vote under the guise of phony election claims. Let me be clear: Voter fraud is virtually nonexistent. According to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative organization, only 12 voter fraud cases have been prosecuted in California since 2021 — an infinitesimal fraction of millions of ballots cast. National studies confirm voter impersonation is exceedingly rare, with most claims rooted in clerical errors rather than deceit. Even if you believed illegal voting to be a problem in need of a solution, the SAVE Act is like swatting at a mosquito with a sledgehammer — unlikely to be effective against the target, and likely to cause a lot of collateral damage. No matter which state new voters are registering in, they must attest to their US citizenship when they register. And every state conducts voter list maintenance to identify potentially ineligible voters on the rolls. States already ensure the vote is safe without disenfranchising vulnerable groups. By adding unnecessary and burdensome documentation requirements, the SAVE Act would keep millions of Americans from participating in elections. That's the point. Certain lawmakers want millions of citizens to decide voting is not worth the trouble. The fewer people who vote, the more some candidates will benefit. This legislation would either directly affect you, somebody you know or both. Those most affected include: * Newly married or divorced individuals and others navigating name changes. * Military families stationed far from home. * College students studying across state lines. * Disaster survivors — including the tens of thousands of people displaced just this year by California wildfires — without vital documents. The SAVE Act, by design, places incredible burdens on millions of people who are already eligible to vote. And if they decide to try to re-register for voting, they'll face a Herculean task. State offices around the country will be flooded by millions of people seeking documentation of their citizenship. Many older people might not be able to stand in line for hours. Citizens with disabilities may be effectively barred from acquiring documentation. If you have a current passport, you might be in luck — but roughly 140 million Americans don't have one. And your California driver's license or RealID won't work; neither qualifies as proof of citizenship. Even before the SAVE Act landed in the Senate, California was fighting back against another push to take away constitutional rights. On March 25, President Trump issued an executive order that requires citizens to provide documentary proof of citizenship on the federal mail voter registration form. I have partnered with California Attorney General Rob Bonta to lead a lawsuit, along with Nevada, against the unconstitutional and unlawful executive order. Seventeen other state attorneys general have joined our fight. Throughout our nation's history, voting rights have been systematically curtailed to silence voices the powerful don't want to hear from. From poll taxes abolished by the 24th Amendment in 1964 to barriers dismantled by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, every step forward has been a fight against deliberate disenfranchisement. Nobody can make a serious argument that the SAVE Act actually encourages people to vote, or even ensures eligible people can exercise their right to participate in our democracy. It's meant to keep people away from voting. It's an old story. Just ask my family about living in the South. Some lawmakers seem conveniently unconcerned about the constitutional rights of minorities, members of our military, women, and poor or rural citizens. The Senate needs to stop this nonsense in its tracks. You can help. Contact your US senators today and urge them to oppose the SAVE Act. Educate your friends, family and community about the true intentions of this bill. Participate in local voter registration drives and support organizations fighting voter suppression. Your voice matters. Use it to defend democracy.
