Creep of the Week - June 27, 1998

Image: Black Panthers Image: Klansmen

The Klu Klux Klan and The Black Panthers
"Still Racists After All These Years"
I must be suffering from one of those nightmarish acid flashbacks they warned me about in school. Today, I woke up thinking it was still the 1960's. Hysterical protesters, both black and white, were rioting in the streets, disrupting the peace, spewing racist hatred, threatening violence, and displaying blatant ignorance. Politicians closed their eyes and hoped it would all go away. The spectators at the scene and the folks at home watching on TV had the bejesus scared out of them and wondered what the hell was wrong with all those lunatics. What a great hallucination, man! I'm glad it was just those nasty substances I used to cram into my body finally catching up with me. Stuff like that doesn't happen in these enlightened 1990's, does it?

Oh you naive, roach-toking hippie dreamer. The truth is stranger and more awful than any deja-vu drug-high fantasy.

This week in Jasper, Texas, which two weeks ago hosted the brutal, racially motivated killing of a black man by three white men, the Klu Klux Klan and the Black Panthers put on an extravaganza of bigotry, just like the old days. The Klansmen came out first, dressed in those ridiculous costumes of white robes and dunce hats that make them look like transvestite nuns on steroids. They began their usual "We're White! Let's hear it for the Whites!" litany. Sounding like he was making a tourism commercial, Klan leader Rick Anderson shouted, "Jasper is part of the invisible empire. Make no mistake about it, this is Klan country!'' The only things invisible are the Klansmen's faces which are hidden behind masks, probably to our benefit.

Act II began with the arrival of The Black Panthers. They now call themselves The New Black Panthers, but not much is new. They still look pissed, carry guns, act like banshees and make outrageous statements. They chanted their "Black Power" cheer. They tried to break through police barricades to get to the Klan but failed. Spokesman Khalid Muhammad bellowed out, in a sound bite of ebonics that would make Jesse Jackson turn white with embarrassment, "We gon' blast dey asses to hell and back!"

Speaking of Jesse, you just knew he'd be circling slowly overhead doing his victim-of-racism, waiting-for-the-carnage vulture act, giving unsolicited advice from a safe distance. "They need an audience, and people in Jasper ought to go fishing," says the Reverend. Get thine buzzard-like ass to the fishing hole thyself, Jesse.

The only intelligent thought in all of Jasper came from the family of James Byrd, Jr., the dragged-behind-the-Klan-truck dead black guy whose demise brought about this whole shameful episode. If anyone would be justified in feeling hateful, it's them, but their words were gracious: "Let this horrendous violation of the sanctity of life not be a spark that ignites more hatred and retribution ...May it spark a new cleansing fire of self-examination and reflection." Unfortunately, that sounds an awful lot like 60's acid flashback rhetoric, too.

Let me know what you think at montgome@servtech.com

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