THE MULTI-CULTI KKK
Alexander Rose says that even the Ku-Klux Klan is following the example of New Labour EXPUNGE from your mind the image of hooded Klansmen with green teeth and tobacco juice seeping from the corners of their mouths. Forget, as well, those halcy- on days when there were four million members of the Ku-Klux Klan, and thou- sands openly congregated in the cornfields of rural America burning 30ft-high crosses. That was all a long time ago, an era before the KKK, the great-granddaddy of extrem- ist organisations, took a long hard look at itself and "wised up. Just as New Labour had to shed the ideological baggage which had accumulated since the war, so too has the Bad Old Klan lately emerged as a re- invented Klan — a New Kool Klan.
The Klan's transformation seemed touch and go for a while, but the free market in extremism made it inevitable. Once, not so long ago, if one wished to join a 'hate- group' there was the KKK and that was about it. But since the early 1990s red- blooded Americans have been able to choose between sundry Christian Identity outfits, the Aryan Resistance Army or a tempting assortment of paramilitary com- pounds in Idaho. By comparison, the KKK looked out-of-date and out-of-touch, dam- aged by large-scale defections, factionalism, FBI informers and public antipathy. Two paths lay open to it: try to compete vainly with the murderers who blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City; or edge towards a populist and ostensibly moderate position.
Such a reformation did not come with- out trauma. Excitable traditionalists want- ed to reignite a wave of racial terror to put the KKK back on the map, but the Young Turks who rose through the ranks in the 1980s argued that the Klan's ultimate aim — that is, a programme of national politi- cal and religious renewal — would be bet- ter realised through peaceful. means. Its objectives now include American isolation- ism, drug testing for welfare recipients, closing the borders to immigration, protec- tionism, abolishing affirmative action, (re)outlawing homosexuality, abortion and interracial marriages, and opposing gun control. It was three factors in particular, however, which sealed the reformist fac- tion's dominance: the firestorm at Waco which consumed the Branch Davidians, the seeming injustice of the O.J. Simpson trial, and the election of Bill Clinton. The hardline 'rope-and-gun' presence was diluted by an influx of young initiates dis- gusted by the perceived tyrannical and anti-Christian ambitions of the federal government under President Clinton. The KKK's position on the Clinton administra- tion was outlined succinctly for me by a high-ranking Klansman I befriended: 'Lib- eralism is Satanism'.
By jettisoning disorganised violence and embracing 'moderation' the New Klan has cleverly embraced political correctness. Nearly every klavern, or local branch, allows women to be initiated, and some are now equally divided between the sexes. Even Catholics are no longer persona non grata. Trade unionists and immigrants (of the right colour, of course) are welcomed into its ranks. In a concession to healthy living, of the sort favoured by America's middle classes, the Klan has banned alco- hol, drugs and, in some cases, tobacco from its rallies. Any Klansman spotted smoking dope is immediately reported to the police. Use of that emotional term, `cross-burning', is forbidden: today, it is referred to as 'cross-lighting', the act sym- bolising the purity of Christ.
The embarrassing 'white supremacy' kick is definitely out of favour — in front of journalists at least — and the hot buz- zword now is 'white separatism'. The new orthodoxy teaches that no one race is bio- logically superior to another, just different in a hip multi-culti, ethnically diverse kinda way, which is why the races should live and breed apart. The anti-Semitic rhetoric, as well, has been refined. Where- as the Jews as a whole were once just hated, now they are divided into those born Jewish and unrepentant Cainites. There is always the hope, you see, that the Jews will convert, but the Cainites (`you shall know them by their actions', I was warned by a former Grand Chaplain of the Klan who was ordained by post as a pastor in the Universal Life Church) can never redeem themselves. How one distinguishes between a Jew and a descendant of Cam never gleaned, though I was assured by the Chaplain that 'I have nothing against the Jews . . nor does any Klansman.' Recently, I became acquainted with an Imperial Titan who also happened to be one of the chief architects of the Klan's reforms, and will, in all likelihood, rise to become a grand Dragon or, God willing, the Imperial Wizard himself. The first thing he will do is abolish, in fine Blairite style, those silly titles — originally chosen to put the wind UP superstitious slaves — but not quite the thing for the New Klan. Imperial Titans +YIP henceforth be known as 'Regional Presi- dents', Dragons as 'State Representatives and the Imperial Wizard as 'National Direc- tor'. Also to go are the unbusincsslike myth' ical or biblical names adopted by klaverns, such as Pegasus and Christ's Avengers. But all is not change for change's sake. Subscriptions will remain fixed at all affordable $2 a month (plus $30 joining fee). There are no plans, at the moment, to eradicate distinctions of rank represented by stripes on the robes (a bonus to becom- ing Grand Dragon is that you get to choose your robe's colour; blood-red is the most popular choice). The robes and hoods cost anywhere between $80 and $100, depend- ing on whether you buy flashy satin or all- American cotton.
Importantly, the process for establishing a new klavem stays the same. First, you need 16 initiates. All of these must be aged 18 or over, unless they happen to be the children of Klan members, which means they can join at 12 — 'with parental con- sent'. Second, officers are elected to take care of recruitment, administration and funding. Third, you drum up potential members by organising tombola stands, cook-outs, open-days and the like. ReallY enterprising klaverns produce newsletters, lapel-pins, engraved pocket-knives, T-shirts, baseball caps and 'club ties'. Fourth, once you reach 32 members, you apply for national recognition. Finally, a 'Charter of Honor' arrives in the post, emblazoned with the 'Grand Imperial Seal' and signed 'BY His Lordship', the Imperial Wizard himself. Underneath the frippery and slick agit- prop, though, the same heart beats, flutter- ing in anticipation for the coming 'Great Race War'. I was informed that when a 'pro- pitious moment' arrives, the KKK will stool the cities, blazing away at Hispanics and blacks. Jews, apart from Cainites, will be allowed a brief period to convert. As my friend casually remarked, 'Tolerance Is something that God and Christ didn't have.'
The author works at the Daily Telegraph and is currently writing Kings of the North: the House of Percy in British History, 1066-1996.
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