[ACC24024]

Your putting ‘racist’ in quotes as though it weren’t really true says volumes about your own beliefs. But let’s set that aside and discuss the flaws in your argument: 1) I think I can safely say the KKK does NOT speak for the overwhelming majority of whites. They represent themselves, a tiny number (less than 10,00) of isolated fanatics despised as pariahs by nearly all whites, all nonwhites and just plain anyone who has a conscience and a sense of morality. The ‘other side’ you refer to is people of European background, not white supremacists. Last time I checked, whites did not have a hard time getting themselves heard in this country.

2) Show me when the KKK has EVER shown the same respect to those who oppose them that you demand they now get. The KKK has the blood of tens of thousands of people on their hands from lynchings, bombings and assassinations. Their victims were almost always unarmed and blameless, and often included women and children. The KKK are nothing more than a terrorist organization. Should we also give a platform to Timothy McVeigh and declare him the ‘true’ representative of those who don’t like big government?

3) The KKK and nearly all racists don’t respond to logic, well thought-out arguments or appeals to compassion. The very nature of racists and racism is illogical and blinding hatred with no thought behind it. 4) There are plenty of other ways of dealing with groups like these than what you suggest. One that hasn’t really been tried enough is to use the law against them consistently. An estimated one-third of Klansmen are in law enforcement. The Klan have infiltrated many state militias (not the ones that run around the woods in camouflage, these are state auxiliaries to the National Guard). Yet the law does little about them. Th real danger in seeing these groups shouted down is that some people will fool themselves, saying, ‘Oh, that’s what a racist is. But I’m not a racist because I don’t practice violence against group X.’ Yet at the same time that person might forbid their daughter to date someone black. Or they might enjoy going to see the Atlanta Braves and doing the tomahawk chop. Sometime talk shows that feature racist fanatics do a real disservice by setting them up as straw men while ignoring the much more deeply rooted and more difficult-to-handle aspects of trying to end racism and hatred.

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Name : ACC24024, Race : Mexican and American Indian, City : W Lafayette, State : IN, Country : United States, Occupation : Grad student, 

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