Page 6

In 1865 in the town of Pulaski, Tennesse,
six young men established a social club, -more or
less for amusement. Ex-Confederate officers,
some college men, they decided to name this
club Kuklos, the Greek word for circle. As a
result of their Scottish ancestry, they introduced,
the suffix Clan. This college boy fraternity was

to evolve into America’s oldest secret racist
society; a vigilante force, the Ku Klux Klan.

Throughout its years the Klan has been a
conservative and not a revolutionary organiza-
tion. As a vigilante the Klan has sought to
uphold’ law and order, white dominance and
traditional morality and social values. It is
a secret oath-bound society and they use the
Bible to justify their racial views. The
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are. essentially
against anybody who is not white, Anglo-Saxon,
Protestant, ‘‘moral’’ and racist.

The Klan is known to have military training
camps inside Canada. ‘‘The camps are for a
variety of things’’, said head of K.K.K. in
Canada, Alexander Mcquirter, in a CKWX
interview last March, ‘‘Leadership, administra-
tion, logistics, how to go into an area and
recruit cold, how to start up a Klan organiza-
tion, different military tactics, discipline, survi-
val in the economic sense....there are camps
inside this country that are absolutely secret’’,
said McQuirter ‘‘I think we should prepare
for self defence,’’ against non-whites, ‘‘We see
this as a racial war, a struggle between whites
and non-whites’’. .

The K.K.K. is very much a concern of the
present, not just in some far off county
in the south of the U.S.A., but right here
in Vancouver. On Sunday, May 31, 1981,
Vancouver witnessed its first recent cross-
burning. Brandishing flaming torches, forty-odd
Klansmen were on the sc ene chanting ‘‘white
power’’ while making Nazi-style salutes around
their symbolic cross. Again, on October 17,
1981, a Klan ceremony took place here in the
lower mainland. This time, the ritual was
interrupted by local police and Klan weapons
were confiscated. Ironically, this same day,
two of the Klans opponents, The British
Columbia Organization to Fight Racism
(BCOFR), and the Peoples Front Against
Racist and Facist Violence, met in South
Memorial Park in tribute to the recent fire-
bomings ‘in Delta. This rally was to lead
to a bloody confrontation between the two
anti-racist groups.

Where does it stop? What does it take to
make people realize that violent racist acts
are now a part of life here in Vancouver?
The first step to combatting the problem is to
realize it exists.

The media have been accused from many
angles of over publicizing or ‘‘feverishly
promoting’’ the Klan. This leaves one to
wonder, what is the role of the Press?
Surely this is an individual value judgement.
Racism is a higly volatile and emotional topic,
but to ignore it and hope it goes away is no
solution. To discuss racism and to not

 

mention the Klan, would simply leave the topic
incomplete.

*

The Other Press

Special to the Other Press by staff writer
Mike Knowles who examines the ignorance
and stupidity that breeds racism and
violence, both here in Canada and abroad.

 

Said United Church minister Rod Booth in a
interview with CKWX radio station ‘‘People
wake up to see the old homestead is changing
and they don’t like it’’ said Booth, ‘‘There
are two other root causes of racism...the nee
to have a scapegoat is one...the other is deep
in the soul of all of us. | had a friend
who worked with Indian kids on the street
downtown-here. These kids felt no self-worth
but ‘’Pakis’’ in their view, were lower than
they were. In other words, everybody needs a
nigger’.

The following are excerpts from a list of inter-
views with Douglas College students. The
topic question being ‘‘Do you think Canada
Immigration is too slack?’

“They are letting too many immigrants in...
thats why there are not enough jobs to go
around.”

“They, (immigrants) are taking jobs Canadians
could fill.’’

“They will import somebody to fill a job,
when they cannot find a Canadian with the’
required skills, instead they should train
Canadians for. this particular opening.’’

‘In their country they have a lot of babies and
thats okay because over there many of their
babies will not survive, but then they come over
here, and yet will not adapt to ‘OUR way of
life; they still have large families. |! believe
thats why there are so many of them around,
not just because of immigration.’

“Our family allowance pays for these large
families.’’

“A friend of mine was fired because the
company felt they needed more minorities.’’
“They discriminate against us; have you ever
seen a Chinese restaurant or grocer with white
staff2’’

_ March 18th to April 1st 1982

‘‘They are the cause of this country’s declining
economy.’’
“I am sick of minorities being given jobs |
deserve.’’

The above are examples of attitudes from

which such pro-racist organizations as the
K.K.K. get their strength and manpower.
These are direct quotes from D.C. students, yet
when asked for an opinion on the contro-
versial topic of whether or not the K.K.K.

should be banned, the replies are almost con- -

tradictory: ‘‘They should be thrown in jail!’’,
“‘They should be banned’’, ‘’l disagree with
this democracy. which allows for Fascists’’,
“Is it legal?’

All in all the results from the interviews

imply that many of those interviewed demon-

strated a lack of awareness towards the fact
that racial problems to minoriy groups exist
in Vancouver. In general people do not
admit that they are racist. ,

What is a racist? Many believe that a racist
is one and non-other, who verbally or physically
assualts a minority group member. More
accurately, to qualify as a racist, one has only
to generalize and categorize human beings
into the cliche role of the ethnic group: they
my belong to, to strip people of their individual
character.

This brings us ‘to the possible solutions to
combatting racism. ‘’Ban the Klan’’, easy to

say but not realistic. For one thing, to outlaw _

the K.K.K. would surely set a precedent
requiring many other less distasteful organiza-
tions to be banned under the same pretense.
rights as ‘‘freedom of speach’’.

“Not a single sound solitary reason has yet
been advanced for putting the Klan out of
business...if the Klan is for damnation and
persecution, so is the Methodist Church....if the
Klan uses the mail for shaking down suckers,
so does the Red Cross...if the Klan.constitutes
itself a censor of private morals, so does the
Congress of the United States...if the Klan
lynches a Moor for raping someones daughter,
so would you or I.’’

David Chalmers
“‘Hooded Americanism’’

This does not justify the Klans existance,
but neither does it condem them. To call
the Klan a ‘‘murderous organization’ and
righteously demand that they be banned, is
merely being emotional, and not realistic. In

This would also be an intrusion on.such human

trying to bring down one group of people the -

really crucial issue is being missed; which is to
act upon the many incidents of racial hostility,
and thereby attack racism from its source.

‘Prejudice can only exist when there is
ignorance’’. It seems, therefore, that educa-
tion would be a primary step towards combat-
ting racism, the shattering of damaging myths
which are reflected in the above interviews
with D.C. students. would be a step in this
direction.

In a previous issue of the Klans periodical
“The Klansmen’’, appeared: ‘‘The Klan is
making a special effort to attract the young’’.
The K.K.K. distributes much of its literature
around schools in an effort to recruit more
members, much of the Klan’s attention is
spent campaigning near schools. It is here,
consequently, where the education should start.
Education methods which bring to light the pos-
itive aspects of multi-culturalism would be one
solution. This might bring forth a better
understanding of what Canada is, not just a
“white Canada’’ but a mosaic of many different

ethnic groups, a mixture of traditions and skills.

"KKK: VANGUARD OF RACISM

 

ad

atts