Laughter & Hate

Clowns Kicked KKK Asses. The posted link on Facebook immediately caught my eye. The post narrated how a white supremacy rally was drowned out by counter protesters dressed up as clowns. When the supremacists shouted "White Power!" the clowns yelled back "White Flour" and threw flour in the air. Subsequent angry volleys of "White Power!" was countered with "White Flower?" and petals, then "Tight Shower?" and a solar shower, and finally "Wife Power?" and women in white dresses. The last return successfully managed to get the VNN Vanguard Nazi/KKK members to attack and get arrested. That was in May 2007.

The white supremists were protesting what they believed was a hate crime ignored by the national media out of political correctness and elite bias because the perpetrators were African American and the victims, whites. Associated Content (not related to Associated Press) comments:

The amount of savagery that took place in this case is of such magnitude that bloggers and their readers are asking, "Where's the national media?" What happened to these two young people is right up there with Jeff Dahmer's deeds on the list of wicked things that people have done to each other.

In January that year, 21 year-old Channon Christian and her boyfriend, 23 year-old Christopher Newsom, were abducted in Knoxville, Tennessee, in what appears to have started as a carjacking. The suspects allegedly tortured and raped Channon for several days before killing her. Christopher was murdered sooner but his treatment was no less brutal.

The crime was undoubtedly savage and those that committed it need to be brought to justice. Whether it was a hate crime or not, I do not know. People, impassioned by the horrific event, have the right to air their grievances. Including those who have made it their life's mission to loathe and denigrate people of color, Jews, lesbians and gays, and others they deem not chosen and unpure.

The good thing about our democracy is that the rest of us can stand up and point to the absurdity of their arguments. Even parody their odium. Unfortunately, ignorance, fear and hate are not easily dispelled by mirth. Discrimination is not always so overt as to identify itself through rallies, slogans, websites and appearances in Fox TV. Many of us are still influenced, not a few convinced, by nuanced and at times insidiously subtle "reasons" for continued segregation and disenfranchisement of people of color, immigrants and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens. We need to remain vigilant, ready to stand up for what is right and just.

Image from Neatorama.