Video of KKK Rally: Linking Nativism, Racism, Anti-Semitism

I reported recently on the Ku Klux Klan rally in Nahunta, Georgia, which was timed to occur when the four Trail of Dreams youth walkers were passing through the city. Now, you have the chance to see some footage from the rally for yourself, courtesy of Creative Loafing, which demonstrates the links between the nativism, xenophobia, racisim, and anti-Semitism that the KKK and its supporters have long stood for.

I wrote yesterday about a new Southern Poverty Law Center report on a surge in nativist extremist groups, and the common ground they've found with racist hate groups and anti-government "Patriot" militias. The election of the African-American son of an immigrant created a great focal point for their fear and hatred. (Cue Birthers.) This video exemplifies the connection between anti-immigrant rhetoric and racial, ethnic, and religious intolerance, and why permitting persecution on any one group is a danger to all. These links are the reason that otherwise unaffected groups like the Anti-Defamation League, which focuses on fighting anti-Semitism, are so concerned by attacks on immigrants and Hispanics.

Because nativist rhetoric is more acceptable today than racism or anti-Semitism, it's used as a public shield behind which other, less politically correct intolerance festers, recruits, and gains power. Although, as this video of a man holding a Confederate flag shows, some people will admit right out that they think African-Americans should "just disappear," and that "the Jews oughta be annihilated" -- and Hitler "had it going on" when he tried to do just that, until "the United States stopped him, which was crazy." I'm sorry, who are you calling crazy?

The focus of the KKK rally was ostensibly against immigration, although shouts of "white power" from the crowd and rhetoric about a "Latino invasion" from the podium make it clear that racism was a driving motivation. One African-American man on the video, who remembers that a member of his own family was targeted for lynching, made the disturbing comment that it he felt "Like they're coming back again."

Racism and other forms of intolerance are deeply interwoven with the anti-immigrant movement. Yet I'm not saying that all nativists are racist and anti-Semitic, or that everybody who believes that strict immigration policies are better is motivated by hatred and intolerance. It's vital for everybody to recognize these distinctions in the anti-immigrant camp -- people on both sides. It should be obvious that the KKK and its supporters are crossing a line that ought to be immediately denounced by non-extremists.

Unfortunately, the anti-immigrant movement today is largely driven by extremist elements and the John Tanton Network, Tanton being the founder of hate group FAIR who compared immigrants to bacteria (among other hateful, dehumanizing, and offensive quotes). We don't see much condemnation when the fringe is controlling the mainstream.