The Last Word
A relatively new Klan group, named after one of its most violent predecessors, meets with the NAACP and makes nice with the Crips street gang. Seriously.
The Ku Klux Klan is proud of its traditions. White robes. Fiery crosses. Titles like 鈥淕rand Cyclops鈥� and 鈥淚mperial Wizard.鈥� Klanta Klaus (really) at Christmas. And, more recently, farcical PR stunts aimed at proving that Klan groups are not, in fact, racist.
On Aug. 31, John Abarr, a Montana kleagle (that鈥檚 Klanspeak for recruiter) for the Alabama-based United Klans of America, or UKA, met at a Casper, Wyo., hotel with local representatives of the NAACP.
At the meeting, Abarr denounced reported attacks on interacial couples in nearby Gillette, Wyo., as hate crimes. He also reportedly said that 鈥渁 certain amount of segregation is a good thing鈥� and that he opposes interracial marriage 鈥渂ecause we want white babies.鈥� As to the Klan鈥檚 appeal, he explained, 鈥淚 like it because you wear robes, and get out and light crosses, and have secret handshakes. 鈥� I sort of like it that people think I鈥檓 some sort of outlaw.鈥�
National NAACP officials distanced themselves from the unprecedented event 鈥� but Abarr reportedly described it as 鈥渁wesome.鈥�
听
The Klan group with which Abarr is currently affiliated is a pathetic millennial reboot of what was once a serious domestic threat. In its prime, the United Klans of America was responsible for, among other things, the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Ala., which resulted in the deaths of four little girls in 1963. The original UKA dissolved after it was sued by the Southern Poverty Law Center in the 1980s, but in June 2011, longtime white nationalist Bradley Jenkins of Ashland, Ala., (now the UKA鈥檚 self-proclaimed imperial wizard) registered a domain name and attempted a comeback.
Jenkins, like Abarr, dreams of rehabilitating the Klan鈥檚 image. To this end, his UKA website 鈥� in addition to predictable gripes about immigrants and African Americans 鈥� denounces the famously gay-bashing Westboro Baptist Church as a 鈥渉ate group鈥� against which 鈥減atriots鈥� with 鈥渢rue Christian values鈥� must 鈥渃rusade.鈥� In 2012, Jenkins told Vice magazine that other groups that use the Klan name are just 鈥渘------hating rednecks,鈥� while the UKA consists of 鈥渆ducated men who are sick and tired听of our country getting crapped on.鈥� He said that 2013 would be 鈥渢he year that people realize the Klan is not a huge hate organization.鈥� (We鈥檒l give him one point for honesty 鈥� the Klan today is definitely not huge.)
Jenkins鈥� efforts to prove his point were nothing if not amusing. In late February, as Klansmen and other white nationalists vowed to rally in Memphis to protest the City Council鈥檚 decision to rename three Memphis parks that honored the Confederacy (including one named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first national leader of the KKK), Jenkins took a stand.
鈥淗ow can that be for others arguing over the name of a park inside a city that made the decision to rename it?鈥� he told a Memphis news station in his stilted way. 鈥淲e will stand resolute with the citizens of Memphis 鈥� and anyone in town, no matter what color they be, because hate and racism has no place.鈥�
Jenkins found an ally in Dajuan Horton, a member of the Grape Street Crips, an African-American street gang in Memphis. In an interview with local reporters, Horton said he would dodge racist protesters鈥� 鈥渂lows鈥� and return them with a 鈥渉ug.鈥� Jenkins vowed to stand with him.
As it happened, it rained. Protesters vastly outnumbered Klansmen and their racist allies, and Horton didn鈥檛 show. 鈥淚t would be nice to take a stand, but 鈥� it鈥檚 raining,鈥� he told Vice.
UKA efforts to rehabilitate the Klan infuriated commenters on Stormfront, the Internet鈥檚 leading white nationalist forum. Referencing Jenkins鈥� proposed alliance with the Grape Street Crips and Abarr鈥檚 meeting with the NAACP, a commenter who identified as a member of the Traditionalist White Knights wrote, 鈥淭his new 鈥榰ka鈥� is nothing more than a joke. The leadership of this group is a media junkie that is desperately trying to get attention.鈥� On WhiteReference.com, another disgruntled racist observed 鈥� accurately 鈥� that the 鈥溾�榃hite Power Movement鈥� is one big FUBAR mess.鈥澨�
