How Did This Meeting Between NAACP and KKK Organizer Turn Out?
Here’s one for the history books: members of a local NAACP branch in Casper, Wyoming sat down and engaged in discussion with an organizer for the KKK this weekend. Yes, according to The Casper Star-Tribune, Jimmy Simmons, president of the Casper NAACP branch, reached out to KKK organizer John Abarr and, amazingly, the latter agreed to a conversation with the former.
As you would expect, there was a lot of tension in the room, because even though Abarr touted his credentials as a member of the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center, he admitted he believes the northwest United States should secede and, while it would be unfair to kick out any black people currently living there, no more should be let in.
There was also this awkward exchange.
A certain amount of segregation is a good thing, he says. White police should stay in white neighborhoods and black officers in black neighborhoods. Color-blindness doesn’t even make sense. Interracial marriage? No. It’s better if the races are kept separate. Completely opposed.
“Because we want white babies,” he says.
At issue during this meeting was reported instances of black men in Gillette, Wyoming getting beaten. Abarr actually agreed that these were hate crimes, but the KKK flyers that popped up in the area were not meant to stir up anything, merely meant as a public service.
His group’s flyers let people know the Klan is serving as a neighborhood watch, to let folks know they’re safe in their beds.
“I like it because you wear robes, and get out and light crosses, and have secret handshakes,” he says. “I like being in the Klan — I sort of like it that people think I’m some sort of outlaw.”
Abarr also gave some insights into the kind of people who would want to join the KKK in this modern day and age.
“What I like to do is recruit really radical kids, then calm them down after they join,” he says. Sometimes recruits will decide Abarr’s Klan isn’t hateful enough and go somewhere else.
As long as recruits look white and think white, that’s good enough for Abarr, even though some potential recruits have “confessed” to him they’re quarter Mexican.
The whole report is quite staggering (and you can read it here), but what really makes it unbelievable is how, at the end of the meeting, Abarr filled out an application to become a member of the NAACP.
Here’s a picture of Simmons and Abarr just before this week’s nomination for most awkward conversation of all time:
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[photos via Alan Rogers, Casper Star-Tribune]
[h/t] Casper Star-Tribune
h/t] Raw Story
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