This short narrative was was recalling Jon Ronson's experiences when he went to visit a Klu Klux Klan rally in the Ozark Mountains located in Arkansas. To his surprise he found it to be much more civilized then he had ever expected. The people their weren't like those shown in the the movies, they were normal people expected that they held a certain opinion which may differ from want you or me might. The new Klans leader Thom was nothing like what he expected him to be like, he was completely against using the N-word, even cringing upon hearing the word, and was focused more upon giving people a better public opinion about themselves and their actions. They were no longer like the gung-ho enthusiasts of the past who would go out on public demonstration trying to instill fear into peoples heart, while secretly trying to take over the world. Some of the groups still try to give off that kind of persona, like the leader from one of the rival Klans who appears on Jerry Springer a lot and throws chairs at people and uses the N-word freely. Thom thinks of those people as Klu Klux Clowns ad doesn't want that for his group, but instead wants to try and portray themselves as the white knights, the heroes, the good guy who are their to try and help those who are being oppressed. A movie, Birth of a Nation, which they watched during the rally, was a good interpretation of what the new Klan was striving to achieve. Some of the individuals that still held on to the hatred and malice from the past left the Klan run by Thom in order to join more “active” groups or some would even go solo and try to help their cause in any way necessary. So that left the Klan dwindling in numbers, trying to achieve a word for white supremacists, but through means closer to that of Martin Luther King's then of Malcolm X's.
In my opinion I like the fact the Thom is trying to achieve his goals without the violence and the hatred that was used by previous generations. But the idea of white supremacy doesn't really sit well with me because if the world was ever divided like that then their would be separate nations all one race, which would lead to turmoil between them, as each nations thought of ways to try an eradicate the others and make a world for only their race (the best race). But on the other hand their would also be those that would go against the rules and try and befriend their so called enemies or love between races could happen, resulting in both parties being shunned from and then another nation filled with the shunned and multiracial individuals would form. This would probably anger the other nations and result in purge attempts against them, since they have not power or money and wouldn't have any means to fight back. So as for the idea of white supremacy it is completely unrealistic and is only a good idea in thought. If it was ever implemented it would have drastic consequences throughout the world.
I also thought that thought they are going to all these extremes to try and get the KKK to be a more civilized group, in the end it will never work. Peoples idea of the KKK has been completely manipulated by the media and the movies that they have seen and all that would result from their actions will be confusion and disbelief. Besides there are still the other KKK groups that follow the views and beliefs of the past and will continue to ruin the efforts of the newly formed group.
One point from the article that I really like was at the end when Ronson spoke about how most older movies were created like Birth of a Nation but then after the immigration of Jews into American this kind of thinking was completely renounced, resulting in Jewish people taking control of much of Hollywood and changing the ideals of the world from that of white supremacy to that or what we now call the American Dream. It is actually very interesting to think how the American dream, being something that everyone wanted was actually advertised by immigrating Jewish people. And also, if you add in the stereotypes about the Jewish people, in particular the one about them being good with money and having a lot of greed, these ideas about the American dream and how it has become what it is now really starts to take form. I am not saying that I promote any of these stereotypes, but I am saying is that I really like how sometimes you don't realized just how our world has come to what it is today without thinking about these small details that are almost always overlooked. I also wonder just how different our world would be events like these never came about.
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