United Klans of America 'a joke'
In reporting on the story of the United Klans of America group leafleting homes in Milford, I interviewed Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center. His summation of the United Klans of America?
"Very much a joke."
Now, it's true that Klan-ish groups are nothing to joke about, but Potok's point was that this current iteration of the UKA is viewed by far-right racist groups as ... a joke. That's mainly because the leader of the new UKA* tried to ally his group with a faction of the Crips street gang from Memphis to stop another Klan group - the Loyal Knights of the Ku Klux Klan - from demonstrating in that city.
To recap: *real* racist groups don't take the current UKA iteration seriously, which I guess Milford residents can take some solace in.
*The old UKA formed in the 1950s in response to desegregation in the south was a very, very violent terrorist organization. They were blamed for bombing a black church in Montgomery, Ala., lynchings, and just generally very bad things.
"Very much a joke."
Now, it's true that Klan-ish groups are nothing to joke about, but Potok's point was that this current iteration of the UKA is viewed by far-right racist groups as ... a joke. That's mainly because the leader of the new UKA* tried to ally his group with a faction of the Crips street gang from Memphis to stop another Klan group - the Loyal Knights of the Ku Klux Klan - from demonstrating in that city.
To recap: *real* racist groups don't take the current UKA iteration seriously, which I guess Milford residents can take some solace in.
*The old UKA formed in the 1950s in response to desegregation in the south was a very, very violent terrorist organization. They were blamed for bombing a black church in Montgomery, Ala., lynchings, and just generally very bad things.
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