Posted on 04/15/2002 10:39:32 AM PDT by chance33_98
Eric Ward brought advice on countering bigotry to Kalispell Sunday night. The executive director of the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity in Seattle was invited by the Montana Human Rights Network. Ward told a crowd of 50 that debate is under way in the Northwest and around the nation on "Who is an American and what will America look like?" The answer comes in a "pretty coded" response and strategy from those who believe in white nationalism or white supremacy. It is a timely discussion, he said, as people such as David Duke have "moved from the margins to the mainstream," Ward said. When Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan member, began running for public office, "people were outraged." After he was defeated three times, groups such as Ward's began to think they should stop wasting energy on him. But in 1991, when Duke ran again for governor of Louisiana, he lost the election, but garnered more than 60 percent of the white vote in the state. His goals had not changed since the 1970s, Ward said. They included ending affirmative action, dismantling the welfare system, passing English-only legislation, and limiting immigration of non-whites. "Those social issues are hotly debated now in our society," Ward said. It is a "process of normalization. "What had seemed extreme, now seemed part of reasonable debate." Americans can't stomach overt bigotry in the form of burning crosses and swastikas, Ward said, but, "Code it up ... and we drink it like gallons of Kool-Aid." Evidence of that is the murders in America of four people of Muslim or Middle-East origins who were killed following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. There was no national outrage to those killings, he said, showing "the coded rhetoric works." It comes across in numerous ways, he said. One element of white nationalism is a paranoid style of politics that includes a belief in a superconspiracy, he said. That belief includes the idea that only a few people really know what is going on socially and politically and everyone must be on one side or another or are "dupes." The other side may include other races, religions, sexual orientations and political party lines. In the Northwest, environmentalists are intimidated and harassed, he said. The question to ask is what is in the national environment that says that's OK to do. "We have to decode the message," he said. Asking a la Rodney King, "Can't we all get along?" is dishonest in its oversimplification. Democracies are complex, Ward said. People should understand that movements like the white nationals don't cause bigotry; they simply exploit bigotry that already exists, he said. Bringing people ages 18 to 29 into discussion and awareness of who Americans are and what America will look like is crucial, he said. Some who believe that "straight, white Christian males who own property" are the answer, have targeted the year 2050, the time when whites are projected to no longer hold a majority in the country. Ward expects the coded rhetoric to intensify leading up to that milestone.
In Metaire, Louisiana maybe. In Montana? Or anywhere else in the USA?
Any Montana Freepers out there who can help me out with this? Is there even a milligram of truth to this, like maybe there's some commune of white supremacists somewhere in the state?
Checking my World Almanac, I find the "whitest" state to be Vermont, who elected the only Socialist Labor Party member of congress and have "gay marriage".
A crowd of 50?? Where was this thing held,the local Shoney's?
Barf indeed. My friend moved to Miami a few years ago and couldn't get a job because she only spoke English. Had to pack up and move to a "bigoted" town where Spanish wasn't a job requirement. This is normal?
The "crowd" of 50 is a hoot! People in Montana have the good sense to ignore this imbecile.
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