About a week ago I was reading an online article. It was an investigative report by two Black writers, David A. Love and Peter Gamble. It was credible with good sources. When I read it and read the source links (to the New York Times, Time Magazine, and Southern Poverty Law Center and the KKK-supporting group in question, The United Daughters of the Confederacy) included within the article as well as the photocopies of the documents in question, I was appalled and outraged!
I was so angry because every day. for the past several weeks, America (and the world) has been bombarded with news stories and polls that pretend the mainstream media in the U.S. is showing some sort of gender bias against Hillary Clinton rather than (or more than a) racial bias against Senator Obama. For Whites, gender has never trumped race in this country. And to support this reality, the U.S. news media can be observed as it actively engages in unfair, obsessive scrutinizing of the only Black presidential candidate with their numerous 'discussions, reports and polls' about how "racist" is an EX associate of Senator Barack Obama. But here we have two men, brave enough to go against the grain of biased reporting, who bring to light Hillary Clinton's CURRENT associate's (her husband, Bill Clinton's) letters of praise to the United Daughters of the Confederacy. This is a group of women who have recommended the literature of Klansmen, been championed by the racist Senator Jesse Helms, and denounced by Senator Carol Moseley Braun on the Senate floor.
The Klan are known for their violent, evil deeds (not just racist 'words' or 'speeches') and yet the media was content overlooking this history of Bill Clinton writing letters of admiration to a group that promotes them and the fact that this annual letter writing tradition from the Oval Office makes up some of Hillary Clinton's White House experience. Experience she wants voters in America to take into consideration in her bid to become the 'first woman' president of the United States. Also overlooking the matter of this story is McCain who was eager to bring up the 'racism' of Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his association with Senator Obama. These candidates (Clinton and McCain) are hypocrites and the real racists in this primary. They are confident of the racial hypocrisy of the White-dominated news media to not treat them (for their racist associations) the way Senator Obama has been treated. And that also makes them cowards to be aware they will not face the depth of grilling Senator Obama has experienced and for them to be comfortable with this racist double-standard.
The disrespect for the history and experiences of a group of people who gave America its pop culture and much of its rich history is the reason most of Reverend Wright's observations and opinions can be understood by many in the Black community. The inhumane and ill-treatment of Black people in this country is gross and repulsive and, with the treatment of majority Black New Orleans right before, during and after Hurricane Katrina, the Sean Bell 'verdict' and this racially biased presidential primary, White America's hypocrisy is on display for the world to see. When a Black person brings up this White American reality and vocalizes how fed up he is with it and how distrustful the perpetrators of anti-Black, White racism have made themselves among their victims, that person is called a "racist" by the racists.
Looking at this presidential primary and the behavior of many Whites (and a few cowardly and/or self-hating Blacks), reminds me that racism truly is a mental disorder and systems that have been constructed to maintain it for the benefit of the dominant White group (and the detriment of the Black community) need to be dismantled.
In the meantime, I have been writing as many people as I can think about regarding this Hillary Clinton-KKK link. Some are shocked, others (knowing how this country is) are not but angered just the same.
