These images show members of the Ku Klux Klan as they want to be seen, scary and secretive and waiting in the wings for Barack and his colour-blind vision for America to fail. Anthony Karen, a former Marine and self-taught photojournalist was granted access to the innermost sanctum of the Klan. He doesn’t tell us how he did it but he was considered trustworthy enough to be invited into their homes and allowed to photograph their most secretive ceremonies, such as the infamous cross burnings.

 

When he talks about the Klan members he has encountered he tends not to dwell on the fate of their victims. Karen’s feat is that he takes us to places few photojournalists have been before, into the belly of the beast. The scenes he presents portray a kinder, gentler Klan. The mute photographs present an organisation that is far less threatening than the hate group of our popular imagination. Consciously or otherwise, his photographs hold our imagination in their grip while doing double duty as propaganda for the extremist right, much as Leni Riefenstahl’s work did for the Nazis.

Today the Klan is a mere shadow of what it used to be and there are at least 34 differently named Klan groups. “They are a fairly low-rent bunch of people, many of whom use their local organisations as a way of raising money for themselves,” says Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama.

 

Photographs of the Klan folk in their hooded regalia aren’t all that rare. The archives of America’s newspapers contain plenty of front-page photographs of lynchings throughout the past century. Three years ago, James Cameron, the last survivor of an attempted lynching died, thankfully of natural causes.

 

The older generation of Black Americans grew up hearing about Klan lynchings whispered over the dinner table but never mentioned outside the home. At the Klan’s height, around the turn of the 20th century, some 30 to 40 lynchings a year were being recorded. It is believed that there were in fact many more unrecorded deaths, especially in the cotton-growing south where the deaths of black field-hands were often not recorded.

 

Karen’s photographs show an entirely different side of the far right. He presents a 58-year-old, fifth-generation seamstress he calls “Ms Ruth” and he has photographed her running up an outfit for the “Exalted Cyclops” or head of a local KKK chapter. She gets paid about $140 for her trouble. Karen tells us that she uses the earnings to help care for her 40-year-old quadriplegic daughter, who was injured in a car accident 10 years ago.

 

Karen’s images of the Klan and its supporters regularly appear on the recruiting websites of the far right. Out of context, the images of hooded Klansmen and their families tell us little of the real story – the inexorable rise in the number of extremist organisations in America.

 

The number of hate-crime victims in the US is also rising and as America’s middle and working class gets thrown out of work, the hate groups behind the crimes are flourishing. As people lose their homes to foreclosure and, without the benefit of a safety net, find themselves slipping into poverty, there is already a search for scapegoats underway. Immigrants from central and South America have become particular targets as the grim economic times take hold.

 

Anyone who doubts the capacity of the modern KKK for violence need look no further than the recent case of 43-year-old Cynthia Lynch of Tulsa, Oklahoma. She had never been out of her home state before she travelled to Louisiana to be initiated into the Klan. She was met off the bus by two members of a group that calls itself the Sons of Dixie and taken to a campsite in the woods 60 miles north of New Orleans.

There, Lynch’s head was shaven and after 24 hours of Klan boot camp, including chanting and running with torches, she had had enough and asked to be taken to town. After an argument, the group’s “Grand Lordship”, Chuck Foster, is alleged to have shot her to death. He was charged with second-degree murder and is awaiting trial. Just as shocking is that the event happened in Bogalusa, a backwoods Louisiana town that was once known as the Klan capital of the US.

 

In the 1960s the Klan operated with impunity in Bogalusa and once held a public meeting to decide which black church to burn down next. Local Klan members were suspected of ambushing two black policemen in 1965, killing one and wounding the other. No one was ever tried for the crimes.

 

Despite all its notoriety the Klan has been a spent force for decades with nothing like the clout it once wielded. At its peak the KKK boasted four million members and controlled the governor’s mansions and legislatures of several states. Since the 1930s the KKK has been in a state of disorganisation and today it probably has 6,000 members. But the economic crisis is swelling their ranks and already, a month after the inauguration of the first black president, the tidal wave of interracial harmony that greeted Obama’s election is starting to recede.

 

“Things are certain to get worse,” says Potok. “The ingredients are all there: a dire economy that is certain to get worse; high levels of immigration; the white majority that is soon to turn into a minority and a black man in the White House.”

More than 400 hate-related incidents, from cross-burnings to effigies of President Obama hanging from nooses have been reported, according to law-enforcement authorities and Potok’s organisation, which files lawsuits against hate groups aimed at making them bankrupt.

 

Late last year, two suspected skinheads who had links to a violent Klan chapter in Kentucky were charged with plotting to kill 88 black students. They were then going to assassinate President Obama by blasting him from a speeding car while wearing white tuxedos and top hats. They were never going to succeed, given the huge security net around Obama, but the fact that they had planned such an outlandish attack may be a harbinger of things to come.

 

“There is a tremendous backlash to Obama’s election,” says Richard Barrett, the leader of the Nationalist Movement, another white supremacist group. “Many people look at the flag of the Republic of New Africa that was hoisted over the White House as an act of war.

 

See photos here : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/am...09-1625732.html

 

Yeah, becase the "white man" is perfectly entitled to run America isn't he.....? Because the white man is totally indigenous to the Americas, they didn't all come across in boats, steal land of the Native American races, commit acts of genocide upon those races, go sailing about in other boats and steal people from their countries to work as slaves.....

 

And of course, the person who officially discovered the Americas and set up the first colonies was also anglo wasn't he....? Not an Italian/Latino chappie from Genoa called Christopher Columbus funded by Queen Isabella of Portugal... :rolleyes:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus OMG, wait a minute..... IT WAS :o :o :o :o

 

And who's responsible for this financial crisis anyway....? Is it immigrants...? Is it African Americans or Hispanic people....? NO, it's fukkin' predominantly GREEDY, WHITE, MIDDLE CLASS BANKERS AND WALL STREET MAGGOTS....... :angry: :angry: :angry:

America is such a country of extremes.

 

You get the sick psychotic f***ers that do this and other things,

 

yet the american exchange student we had last semester was a f***ing riot, and one of my best mates is studyin across in ohio and has only ever had good things to say, she's even marrying one :o

And who's responsible for this financial crisis anyway....? Is it immigrants...? Is it African Americans or Hispanic people....? NO, it's fukkin' predominantly GREEDY, WHITE, MIDDLE CLASS BANKERS AND WALL STREET MAGGOTS....... :angry: :angry: :angry:

 

No - it's our fault, apparently. Steven A Grasse - the author of the book called Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World - said that capitalism was invented by Adam Smith. And, since he was a Scotsman, it's Britain's fault.

 

Mind you, the same bloke says that global warming's our fault (due to the Industrial Revolution), World War I was due to Germany wanting an Empire like we had (the matter of an Austrian Archduke being shot in Sarajevo is irrelevant), and that the Vietnam War was because we set the world trend for world colonisation (and thus France would never have colonised Vietnam*). I've so got to try and find his book - it's apparently quite funny.

 

* - This is funny: the French then called the Americans for helped, then got the f*** out as soon as America arrived.

No - it's our fault, apparently. Steven A Grasse - the author of the book called Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World - said that capitalism was invented by Adam Smith. And, since he was a Scotsman, it's Britain's fault.

 

It's not actually Adam Smith's fault at all... He was NOT an advocate of totally unfettered free markets, dont let the neo-liberalist maggots of the so-called Adam Smith Institute fool you.. They totally DISTORTED Smith's intentions and his ethos.... He believed in markets, and free trade, but he also said there should be limits.... Smith was actually a moral philosopher.. He would be spinning in his fukkin' grave if he knew what the likes of Thatcher and the Free Marketeers were doing in his name......

 

No one will ever get rid of racism, it'll always be around (just not in extreme forms such as the KKK imo, they're kind of a 'dying' breed, they have no power like they used to back in the 30's, and imagine if they lynched someone, the uproar there would be). Someone people just genuinely do not understand the difference of skin colour, in the same way that some heterosexual's don't understand homosexual's (not as people, but to why someone has sexual attractions for the same gender). So yeah really.

 

And give me capitalism over communism/fascism anyday...

It's not actually Adam Smith's fault at all... He was NOT an advocate of totally unfettered free markets, dont let the neo-liberalist maggots of the so-called Adam Smith Institute fool you.. They totally DISTORTED Smith's intentions and his ethos.... He believed in markets, and free trade, but he also said there should be limits.... Smith was actually a moral philosopher.. He would be spinning in his fukkin' grave if he knew what the likes of Thatcher and the Free Marketeers were doing in his name......

 

You've got to bear in mind that the guy who said it claims that the First World War came around due to Germany being jealous of our empire. When I did the First World War in school, I was taught that it was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that kickstarted it.

You've got to bear in mind that the guy who said it claims that the First World War came around due to Germany being jealous of our empire. When I did the First World War in school, I was taught that it was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that kickstarted it.

 

Yeah... ostensibly. Then a series of bizarre, age-old alliances created a chain reaction that no one foresaw or could explain. And there were a lot of reasons... perhaps Germany was jealous of Britain, certainly France was furious at Germany because of the loss of Alsace. Hell, I think sentiment was a big part of it. Most of Europe's leaders, Wilhelm of Germany especially, had a chivalrous, romantic delusion of grandeur about war, that war was grand and exciting and romantic. But couple that sort of Medieval attitude with very modern technology and weapons and before long it was a fukking bloodbath.

 

Guns of August is a great WWI read that really shows how idiotic and pointless the whole thing was. Just a bunch of degenerate (and incestuous) "nobles" oohing and aahing over the "glory" of war while millions were suffering excruciating and pointless deaths... still can't believe people idolize the aristocracy and nobility of Europe, it's a backward, Medieval concept in my opinion... (hope I don't get slammed for that :lol:)

neo-liberalist

 

you reminded me of Australian's PM essay over the failure of "neo-liberalism". :lol:

I think this photo is very powerful. :o And admittedly, the KKK scare the hell out of me, and I don't scare easily.

And give me capitalism over communism/fascism anyday...

 

You dont even know what genuine Marxism is though.... All you've seen is places like Soviet Union and China who made ridiculous claims to be Marxist, but were nothing of the sort.... They forgot one of the first principles of Marx, which is that the State is subordinate to the Proletariat.... So, really all Stalinism and Maoism was, was red-tinted Fascism.... Capitalism hardly serves your interests either.... Well, unless you actually believe that having your future sold down the river (heh, heh, you honestly think you're gonna get a decent pension at the end of your working life...? Dream on, I'd start playing the lottery if I was you..... You'll be forced to work until you drop mate, thanks to Bush, Broon and Darling....) by greedy corporate little bankers who fukked up our system and now we're bailing the c/unts out and letting them waltz off with £640k per annum pensions, is actually in your best interests.....

 

We are such selfish, craven, stupid creatures us humans, and we're gonna wipe ourselves out one day in the name of our greed.. Good.... I hope we do, this planet would frankly do a lot better without such an insane, destructive (to ourselves as well as other forms of life...) species of life.... Marx came along and gave us a way out of our selfishness and greed, he was a great thinker, as great as Einstein, Da Vinci, Decartes or Aristotle, hundreds of years ahead of his time probably.....

 

If there are species of alien life form out there, who can travel galaxies and whatnot, well, it's only through evolution and through evolving past their selfishness, hatred and greed, that they have survived long enough to do so.... Such lifeforms would certainly not want to visit us in our present state, we'd just kill them and steal their technology..... :rolleyes:

You dont even know what genuine Marxism is though.... All you've seen is places like Soviet Union and China who made ridiculous claims to be Marxist, but were nothing of the sort.... They forgot one of the first principles of Marx, which is that the State is subordinate to the Proletariat.... So, really all Stalinism and Maoism was, was red-tinted Fascism.... Capitalism hardly serves your interests either.... Well, unless you actually believe that having your future sold down the river (heh, heh, you honestly think you're gonna get a decent pension at the end of your working life...? Dream on, I'd start playing the lottery if I was you..... You'll be forced to work until you drop mate, thanks to Bush, Broon and Darling....) by greedy corporate little bankers who fukked up our system and now we're bailing the c/unts out and letting them waltz off with £640k per annum pensions, is actually in your best interests.....

 

We are such selfish, craven, stupid creatures us humans, and we're gonna wipe ourselves out one day in the name of our greed.. Good.... I hope we do, this planet would frankly do a lot better without such an insane, destructive (to ourselves as well as other forms of life...) species of life.... Marx came along and gave us a way out of our selfishness and greed, he was a great thinker, as great as Einstein, Da Vinci, Decartes or Aristotle, hundreds of years ahead of his time probably.....

 

If there are species of alien life form out there, who can travel galaxies and whatnot, well, it's only through evolution and through evolving past their selfishness, hatred and greed, that they have survived long enough to do so.... Such lifeforms would certainly not want to visit us in our present state, we'd just kill them and steal their technology..... :rolleyes:

You think I'm planning to hang around in England all my life? :heehee: No chancee. The country is in a state, wait correction, the government is in a state. I'd even go as far to say it's nearer to corruption. I don't actually mind the idea of communism/Marxism on paper, it's just when it's practised and you do get Stalin-like powers fukking it up, that's when it fails.

 

I think this photo is very powerful. :o And admittedly, the KKK scare the hell out of me, and I don't scare easily.

I found that really shocking to..

 

You think I'm planning to hang around in England all my life? :heehee: No chancee. The country is in a state, wait correction, the government is in a state. I'd even go as far to say it's nearer to corruption. I don't actually mind the idea of communism/Marxism on paper, it's just when it's practised and you do get Stalin-like powers fukking it up, that's when it fails.

 

Yeah, and that's cos we ARE just greedy, selfish beings.... But we could be better than that, and I think we really HAVE to be better than that if we are to survive, I think Marx really saw the way the world was headed, and our current financial crisis and the 30s Depression really proves that he was right.... Our greed is, quite literally, killing the planet we live on.... What do you call a form of life that kills the host that it relies on for survival.....? A virus...... Remember the quote from Agent Smith in "The Matrix"......? :rolleyes:

 

 

 

Photographs of the Klan folk in their hooded regalia aren’t all that rare. The archives of America’s newspapers contain plenty of front-page photographs of lynchings throughout the past century. Three years ago, James Cameron, the last survivor of an attempted lynching died, thankfully of natural causes.