This post contains controversial material on the Ku-Klux-Klan. Viewer discretion is advised
What comes to mind when you hear the word “racism”? It could be Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement of the 60’s. Maybe you think about slavery and the American civil war. For me, it’s white hats and the Deep South. The rise and fall of the KKK, and the terrifying power they once held. For my second Think and Create assignment I will be diving into the power dynamic inside the Klan.
Throughout our lives we have all heard of the Ku-Klux-Klan. Most of us never actually seen the facts on them though. You might see the Klan in movies, in the media or otherwise but real info is few and far between. In my Humanities class I saw a very thought provoking documentary called Klansville about the KKK. It entails the rise and fall of the South Carolina chapter of the KKK in the 60’s. It made me think about how the clan operated and how the power dynamic inside of the KKK impacted it’s pervasiveness. Was the power dynamic in the Klan something special? I decided to make this hierarchy graphic to demonstrate how the Klan really worked.
To answer the question. Not really. It turns out the Klan (in most chapters) works as a racially fuelled pyramid scheme. They fund themselves by taking money from new members as an “entrance fee” to provide money to more senior members for rank and time served. The problem is there are an almost endless amount of ranks within the clan especially considering there is variation from state to state, chapter to chapter. This makes a detailed explanation of the group difficult. After researching, I selected the most essential roles in the Klan and this graphic shows more of a skeleton of the United Klans of America, showing a daily function of how Klans work. Notice how there are always vastly more people below the income line than above it, proving it was merely a pyramid scheme with stupid names.
The power within the hierarchical structure wasn’t necessarily what made the klan so prevalent but more so the threat of the people’s power being lost. The clans target audience was people already from the lower class, those who didn’t have a place. Fear mongering ran rampant within the clan. False ideals and false ideas that giving equal rights to other races meant less rights for white people. The klan gave a warm welcome to people feeling left out of social circles. People who had nowhere else. The klan offered you validation and gave someone to blame for your problems. Anyone with 10 dollars in their pocket could join.
Delusion and false affirmation were the clans bread and butter and at least weekly rallies were the icing on the cake, cementing people’s racially motivated anger. The power of the clan was that they had something you didn’t, wether that was open arms, strong leadership or a place to express your resentment towards people who have nothing against you and want nothing to do with you. The klan was there for you.