Klansville Reflection

When watching "Klansville U.S.A." it has a very harsh and unsettling feeling that's seen in today's world. I've spent my high school years in a very diverse community being in a New England boarding school

, we had kids from every walk of life, 60 different countries, and all different economic backgrounds. I've always struggled to understand how hate groups like this gain followers, because of how far you get put ahead being cultured in so many different backgrounds. Still i am baffled on what these peoples ideologies are i felt very off put watching the whole thing. Adding to the fact that North Carolina was considered progressive yet became "Klansville" reminds me that prejudice can exist anywhere, even in places we consider enlightened.

What struck me most was how Bob Jones recruited members by exploiting their economic fears. As a college student worried about job prospects and battling through an insane economy, I can understand economic anxiety,but the way that these people went about it was simply cruel and quite strange. 

The documentary also made me reflect on my own privilege. While I worry about my future, I've never feared that social progress would threaten my basic rights or safety. My grandparents, who lived through the civil rights era, rarely discuss this period, and now I wonder what they witnessed or perhaps stayed silent about. Granted they were from the north and they say some of the things that happen or that they did, but it is always followed by i regret that time so much. Or the saying, "if you remember the 60’s then you weren't there”. 

Klansville USA reinforces why we must remain strong and determined against ALL hate today. Recently in the past year ive been scrolling through tik tok and instagram, I sometimes see posts that reflect the same things Jones exploited: constant talk about change, economic insecurity, and racial resentment disguised as "economic anxiety." This is seen over and over again on all platforms and even in regular conversations that I have with people. And not all but most have a hazy sense of racism behind their words even when they mask it with this anxiety that we ALL have. 

Understanding this history feels especially crucial now as a young adult. My generation must learn from the past to recognize and counter these patterns when they come out and we are not doing a good job at it at all. We have riots in the streets, looting going on, people being killed Every. Single. Day. Some days it's almost sickening opening up my computer and looking at the news because there's one thing that always happens in history. It repeats itself.